In what probably will be the first of its kind transplant surgery, an extra nose grown on the forehead of a 22-year-old Chinese man – who damaged his nose in a car accident in August 2012 – will soon be transplanted by doctors at a hospital in China's southeastern province of Fujian.

The extra nose which will be transplanted was constructed out of the rib cartilage of the man, who is named Xiaolian. To prepare for the transplant, the nose has been implanted under the skin of Xiaolian’s forehead.

Revealing that it took the doctors nine months to cultivate the graft, surgeon Guo Zhihui - at Fujian Medical University Union Hospital – said that the doctors had to take the extreme measure of constructing the extra nose for Xiaolian because his original nose developed an infection after getting damaged in the car accident last year.

Noting that Xiaolian was given only basic treatment on his nose after the accident, Guo said that the infection made it impossible for the doctors to reconstruct the nose; thereby requiring them to grow a new nose on Xiaolian’s forehead.

Guo told The Associated Press that the nose grown on Xiaolian’s forehead will be cut - with a section of skin still connected – and then rotated and grafted into position in a later operation. About the media attention which the implant is getting, Guo said: "We were just interested in helping the man and did not expect it would stir up this much attention."