A doctor in the US used a section of the fibula bone of a 9-year-old boy in his lower right leg to replace part of his right jaw, where there was a benign tumor. “I was very nervous when I had the operation. I was afraid. I feel much better now”
A Jewish doctor in Brooklyn recently performed a rare operation on 9-year-old Dimitri Pristoris, using a section of the fibula bone in his lower right leg to replace part of his right jaw, where there was a benign tumor that threatened to disfigure him. “I was very nervous when I had the surgery. I was scared. I feel much better now,” said Demetri.
The boy’s mother, Stacey Pristoris, said her son’s saga began when she noticed Dmitri’s right jaw was swollen. She thought it was an allergic reaction to a certain food, but later it turned out to be a tumor. Demetri underwent an eight-hour operation last February at the Cohen Children’s Medical Center at the Jewish Hospital in Northwell, Long Island.
Doctors replace NYC kid’s jaw bone with leg section in amazing surgery https://t.co/PEe1DyLba5 pic.twitter.com/jtKDlBD3tJ
— New York Post (@nypost) July 31, 2022
One of Dmitri’s surgeons, Dr. David Hirsch, said it is rare to replace a child’s jaw with bone from the leg because of a tumor. “Children rarely get this type of tumor,” said Hirsch, chairman of the oral and maxillofacial surgery department at Manhattan Hospital.
“When we do see a tumor like this, it’s usually small. His was the largest we’ve seen in children.” Dimitri’s mother said that “the tumor was the size of an egg when they removed it, we were told that they had to remove the tumor and they had to rebuild Demitri’s jaw by taking bone from his leg.”
Hirsch said his team was able to successfully fuse Dmitri’s fibula bone with the rest of his jawbone, with a large portion of the damaged jawbone removed. “Demetri healed really well.” said his doctor.
d”R. David Hirsch