Surgeons Perform World's First Full-Face Transplant

Surgeons in Spain have performed the world's first full-face transplant on a young man left unable to breathe, swallow or speak properly after an accident five years ago, reports the Daily Mail.

The 24-hour operation involved 30 surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and other medical experts at the Vall d’Hebron hospital in Barcelona. The man, who has not been named, received new facial muscles, skin, nose, lips, jaw, teeth, palate and cheekbones. The operation took place on March 20 but details have only just been made public. The recipient is said to be recovering well and has already glimpsed his new face. Joan Pere Barret, the hospital’s head of plastic surgery, said: ‘The patient has scars on his forehead and his neck but they will become invisible in the future. ‘He has seen himself when he told us he wanted to and psychologists said he was ready. It was a week after the operation and he reacted well, saying he was satisfied with the result.’ Although the man has been given someone else’s face, he will not take on the looks of the donor, who died in a road crash. Instead, his new face will be a hybrid, identical to neither his old one nor the donor’s but reminiscent of both. He is expected to remain in hospital for another two months.

The surgerons' main fear now is that the man's body will reject the transplant. They also say the man will have to take powerful immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of his life which will increase his chances of getting cancer and diabetes.



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