Doctors at Bologna's Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute said Tuesday that they successfully performed the transplant of a section of a human spine in a world first.
On September 6 the team led by Dr Alessandro Gasbarrini replaced four vertebrae in a 77-year-old patient with bone cancer with a section held in an Emilia-Romagna muscle-bone tissue bank. "He's fine," Gasbarrini said of the patient.
"He has been discharged.
"He was with us for about a month.
"After two weeks of post-operation checks he was transferred to another department for physiotherapy and there he was put back on his feet and in a condition to have a life that is as normal as possible.
"When he was up to it, he went back to be with his loved ones".
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