Yes, this is a nose growing on this man's forehead.

This man was injured in a car accident and then suffered from an infection that destroyed his nose. And while the method of growing body parts on other body parts isn't anything new, this is certainly a striking way to do it.


So why the forehead? The forehead is a great place to grow body parts, thanks to its ample blood vessels -- and the facial skin will provide a better match than skin from elsewhere on the body. But despite its extreme appearance, this method is not that different from plastic surgery techniques used all the time, said Dr. David Cangello, an attending plastic surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital and Manhattan, Eye Ear and Throat Hospital in New York.

When Surgery Tools Are Left Behind Surgeons call them 'nevers' because they're mistakes they should NEVER make: like leaving things inside of you during surgery. "I would call it a different take on a principles that we commonly use in reconstruction," Cangello said. The man's doctors placed tissue expanders, which create space to stretch the skin, under the man's forehead, and created the rough shape of a nose, using screws and plates. They then harvested cartilage from his ribs to fill in the nose. Once the nose is ready, they will rotate the entire assemblage -- skin, blood vessels, cartilage and all -- and move the new nose to where his current nose sits.

Though reconstructive surgeons would also put tissue expanders under the forehead skin to stretch the skin enough to cover the new nose, they would place the nose differently. "We typically take the cartilage from the rib, and we put it right where the nose structure would already be, and we bring the skin flap over it and cover it," Cangello said. Afterward, the doctors suture together the skin flaps of the forehead, which will usually leave a small scar.