For Scoliosis, a Big Leap in Care NYU LANGONE’S INNOVATIVE FIX for a CURVED SPINE IS DRAWING YOUNG ATHLETES WORLDWIDE
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To Serve. To Teach. To Discover SUMMER 2021 Frontiers The Golden Age of Psychedelic Medicine PAGE 20 Perlmutter Cancer Center When Melanoma Invades the Eye PAGE 4 New Doctors Meet Brooklyn’s Top Robotic Lung Surgeon PAGE 8 SPECIAL REPORT: New Milestones in Our Pandemic Response For Scoliosis, a Big Leap in Care NYU LANGONE’S INNOVATIVE FIX FOR A CURVED SPINE IS DRAWING YOUNG ATHLETES WORLDWIDE. DANCER JENNA MORIELLO IS ONE OF THEM. PAGE 14 2 NYU LANGONE HEALTH NEWS Plastic Surgery A New Face, Two New Hands, and Another Major Milestone When NYU Langone Health per- , the -year-old from Clark, dures had never been done simulta- we capitalized on their expertise, formed its third successful face NJ, was driving home aer working neously with a successful outcome. assembling a comprehensive hand transplant last August, the patient, the night shift as a product tester. In one case, the patient subsequent- transplant team.” Joseph DiMeo, got a new lease on When he fell asleep at the wheel, his ly died from an infection, and in the Aer DiMeo was formally accept- life—not only from the new face car crashed, rolled over, and burst other, the transplanted hands had ed for the donor wait list on October that reintroduced him to the world, into flames. DiMeo was pulled to to be removed when they failed to , , the surgical team began a but also from the new pair of hands safety by a good Samaritan before thrive. period of rigorous rehearsals. Dr. that restored his independence. The the vehicle exploded. The accident In DiMeo’s case, the risks would Rodriguez and other transplant procedure, the first successful face le DiMeo with third-degree burns be no less daunting. Not only would surgeons practiced every step of each and double hand transplant ever per- over % of his body, disfiguring his Dr. Rodriguez and his surgical team procedure on cadavers, first in NYU formed, marked the launch of a new face and hands. transplant the donor’s full face, but Langone’s surgical skills laboratory Hand Transplant Program at NYU DiMeo endured more than they would also amputate both of and then in an operating room with Langone, and another milestone in skin gra surgeries. His fingertips DiMeo’s hands, replacing them at the entire OR team of clinicians the institution’s expanding portfolio were amputated, and scarring left midforearm with those of the donor. and sta. of pioneering procedures. In partic- the remaining parts of his fingers In all, they would need to connect A major challenge would be at- ular, the program now oers people fused together, forcing him to grasp two bones, tendons, five veins, taching limbs from a donor whose with severe hand deformities an al- objects as if he were wearing mit- two major arteries, and three domi- anatomy is uniquely dierent. “This ternative to prosthetic arms, notes tens. A plastic surgeon at a medical nant nerves. makes it very dicult to join the two Eduardo D. Rodriguez, ¢£, ££¤, center in New Jersey, realizing that NYU Langone was well posi- sets of structures because the length the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of no additional conventional surgery tioned to tackle the challenges of and diameter of the bones and ten- Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and would improve DiMeo’s function- hand transplantation. For more dons are not identical,” notes Sheel chair of the Hansjörg Wyss Depart- ality, referred his patient to Dr. Ro- than half a century, its surgical spe- Sharma, MD, clinical associate pro- ment of Plastic Surgery. “Many of driguez, director of NYU Langone’s cialists at the Replantation Center at fessor of plastic surgery, who led these people are limited by the cur- Face Transplant Program. When Dr. NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, a the team of eight specialists who rent technology of prostheses, which Rodriguez met DiMeo and his par- Level I Trauma Center, have refined worked in concert on the limbs of are functionally imperfect,” he says. ents, John and Rose, he recognized the microsurgical skills needed to both donor and recipient. “It’s also In DiMeo’s case, artificial arms both a challenge and an opportunity. reattach severed body parts. “These challenging to weave the tendons of were not a viable option due to the While some face transplants and plastic and orthopedic surgeons are the donor into those of the recipient extent of the injuries he sustained hand transplants had been per- very experienced with these tech- to achieve the proper tension for during an accident. On July §, formed worldwide, the two proce- niques,” says Dr. Rodriguez, “so the pulley system that controls the IMAGERIGHT: CHRISTIE RAMIAH FOR THE HANSJÖRG WYSS DEPARTMENT OF PLASTIC SURGERY Photograph by ELLIOT GOLDSTEIN SUMMER 2021 3 During a 23-hour surgery, Joseph DiMeo made medical history as the first recipient of a successful face and double hand transplant. Praising the OR team of 15 fellow transplant surgeons and 80 clinicians and staff, Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez described the collaboration as “the most beautifully choreographed dance you could ever imagine.” movement of the hand.” DiMeo is recovering so well that To ensure that bones would be his doctors consider him six months aligned perfectly, the team used ahead of where they expected him ¨-£ computerized surgical planning to be. “He lis heavier weights than and ¨-£–printed customized cutting I can,” says Dr. Sharma. They attri- guides. A meticulous system was bute much of this progress to their also needed to match the networks patient’s commitment. “Joe does of nerves, blood vessels, and tendons everything we ask for and more,” from the donor with those of the re- says Dr. Rodriguez, “and our hand cipient. “The inside of a limb looks therapists from Rusk Rehabilitation like an exposed telephone cable,” are very creative with exercises that says Dr. Rodriguez. “We tagged all improve his fine motor skills.” Even- the elements to be transplanted with tually, DiMeo’s new hands will allow preprinted labels to ensure that we him to regain his freedom and even paired them properly.” start driving again. “It’s great that As in all transplants, the surgeons Joe has a new face, but he also loves sought to complete the operation his new hands,” says Dr. Rodriguez. as quickly as possible to limit the “Every time I see him on his smart- amount of time the donor’s tissue phone, it’s impressive to see his fin- is not nourished with blood. “Since gers typing on the tiny keypad.” Joe is right-hand dominant, the first transplant I wanted to see was his Joseph DiMeo (right), five months right hand,” explains Dr. Rodriguez. after surgery. When Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez evaluated the prospec- “Once that was going well, then we tive donor, he was happy to see that went ahead with the le-hand pro- his height, weight, and skin color cedure and finally progressed to the were a close match to DiMeo’s. face transplant.” The entire oper- FOR INFORMATION ABOUT face ation was completed in ¨ hours, and hand transplantation, visit hours less than NYU Langone’s two nyulangone.org/facetrans- IMAGERIGHT: CHRISTIE RAMIAH FOR THE HANSJÖRG WYSS DEPARTMENT OF PLASTIC SURGERY previous face transplants. plant or call 646-501-4481. 4 NYU LANGONE HEALTH NEWS Complex Cases When Melanoma Invades the May 25, 2021: After a year of surgical interventions at NYU Langone Health, Colleen Regan is now free of melanoma. The vision in her affected eye is 20/30. SUMMER 2021 5 “Melanoma in the eye is rare and amelanotic melanoma is rarer still. The location alone makes it extraordinarily complex.” Irina Belinsky, MD Last March, just as New York City in their lifetime. Fewer than % of a malignancy “rolling out like an was entering lockdown, Colleen those cases will be amelanotic, or invisible carpet.” The melanoma, Regan was confronting a health without pigment. The rare cancer is it turned out, had spread along the crisis of her own. A few days before no deadlier than conventional mela- skin of her entire lower eyelid, onto hospitals were forced to cancel elec- noma, but fewer people survive be- the mucous membrane (conjuncti- tive surgeries to free up beds for the cause it’s oen overlooked or misdi- va) that lines the inside of the eyelid surge of ¬¯°±£ patients, Regan had agnosed. and white part of the eye, and even been diagnosed with a rare type of Dr. Liebman’s ability to discern the skin of her upper eyelid. Worse melanoma, a deadly skin cancer. She what others had missed reflects still, it extended into her tear canal, wondered how she would manage NYU Langone’s long-standing ex- the conduit for tears flowing from her illness amid a pandemic that pertise in melanoma research and the eye to the sinus. “That was a big made something as simple as leaving care. Its dermatologists developed problem because if the cancer cells the house a potentially life-threaten- one of the first skin cancer treat - spread beyond the canal, the chance ing event. ment programs in New York City of surgically clearing the cancer One year earlier, Regan, then more than ¨ years ago and even would be slim, and Colleen’s overall , noticed an itchy blemish be- established the main criteria for de- prognosis would be poor,” says Dr. neath her right eye, a seemingly tecting melanoma, popularized with Belinsky. “It was a very sneaky mel- innocuous pink spot. She consulted the mnemonic ª«¬£® (see page ). anoma that got into all of the little two dermatologists, both of whom “Dr. Liebman was the first doctor nooks and crannies.” dismissed the scaly patch as a skin who listened to me,” recalls Regan.