Woman 'has first face transplant'

aKho · Dec 2, 2005

(CNN) -- Doctors in France say they have performed the first partial face transplant on a woman who had suffered extensive injuries in a dog attack.

A joint statement from hospitals in Lyon and Amiens in northern France said on Wednesday the surgery took place Sunday in Amiens on a 38-year-old woman, replacing her nose, lips and chin.

The woman was in "excellent" condition and that the transplanted organs look "normal," the statement said. She wants to remain anonymous, it added.

Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard, one of the surgeons who performed the transplant at Amiens University Hospital, told The Associated Press the transplant was the world's first of its kind. (Watch the future of these transplants -- 1:37)

But "we still don't know when the patient will get out," he said. He refused to give any more details until a news conference on Friday at 1 p.m. in Lyon.

The grafted tissue came from another woman who had been declared brain-dead, with the consent of her family, the statement said.

Various organs were also donated from the deceased woman for other patients.

The statement said the woman who received the partial facial transplant had "lesions that were extremely difficult and nearly impossible to repair using standard facial surgery methods."

Doctors from CHU Amiens and a team from CHU Lyon participated in the procedure, the statement said.

Similar procedures have been discussed by British and American doctors, but because of ethical concerns they have not been approved.

However, an internal review board at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio has approved a future full facial transplant that would be performed by Dr. Maria Siemionow, a leading expert in microsurgery, according to an official with the clinic.

It's the only U.S. institution that has the approval of its internal review board to do the procedure.

No other approval is needed for the operation to go forward, but the clinic has not yet found a suitable patient, the official said.

Such an operation would be conducted only on severely disfigured patients, the official said, most likely on burn victims, because those patients usually still have their bone structure and musculature in place.

The procedure should not be considered elective, the official said.

Officials with the Cleveland Clinic and the University of Louisville (Kentucky) -- which has also been researching such a procedure -- would not comment on the French operation, saying that they didn't know enough about it.

Scientists have previously performed scalp and ear transplants but experts say the mouth and nose are the most difficult parts of the face to transplant.

The woman will not look identical to her donor even once the swelling has gone down. Her appearance will be somewhere between her original face and the face of the donor.

Cancer risk

Medics have been concerned over whether the side-effects of the the immunosuppression drugs, which patients must take for the rest of their lives, would outweigh the benefits.

The drugs can increase the risk of cancer. Concerns have also been raised over the psychological impact on the patient if the surgery failed.

Medical experts has cautiously welcomed the pioneering surgery but warned that more research was needed into the long-term risks and the ethical issues.

Peter Butler, consultant plastic surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, north London, has led one of four teams worldwide which have been working towards carrying out the procedure.

Butler, who has been researching the psychological impact, welcomed the news.

"It is a great step forward for European science and medicine," he told the Press Association.

He said he hoped to be able to carry out the procedure in the UK within two years.

Ethical issues

Consultant facial surgeon Iain Hutchison at Barts, who is chief executive of Saving Faces, the Facial Surgery Research Foundation, said while all medical advances are to be celebrated, the operation threw up many moral and ethical issues.

He told PA: "This was a quality of life operation rather than a life-saving operation and has many implications for the recipient and donor's families.

"The recipient chose to take the risk of the operation failing if the blood vessels become blocked. There's a medium-term risk of the immunosuppressant drugs failing to control rejection of the donor tissue, and a long-term risk of the drugs causing cancers.

"She could be back to square one without a face, needing further reconstruction operations."

Brendan Eley, Chief Executive of the Healing Foundation, said: "Facial transplantation is a very exciting and fast-developing area of modern surgery, offering some hope to a small number of people who survive very serious disfiguring conditions.

"Though the surgical techniques to perform these operations are well established, the Healing Foundation would like to see further research, especially into the issues of immunosuppression and the psychological aspects, before advocating the procedure more widely."

Dr. Daniel Sokol, Researcher in Medical Ethics, Imperial College, said the main ethical issue was one of informed consent.

"Did the patient give adequately informed consent to the procedure? Did she understand the risks and implications of the transplant?

"If the answer to these questions is 'yes,' and I see no obvious reason why it should be otherwise, then all those involved should be congratulated for their skill and courage."
Click to expand...

i've heard about this on the radio on my way to work this morning. apparently, some people are angry about the surgery for various reasons. if you watched the movie "Face Off" you'll get an idea on what people are fearing. imo, if it'll help the lady get back to her normal life, that's a good thing.

source : http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/11/30/france.face/

ZuePhok · Dec 2, 2005

No.7 George Best died was because of the drug..

hope she will be fine..

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