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Face transplant 'a success'
04/07/2006 14:26 - (SA)
London - More than six months after
performing the world's first partial face transplant, French
surgeons described it as a complete success and revealed plans
for another later this year or early next.
"Today, after six months, we are more than happy with the
result from a functional and aesthetical point of view," said
Professor Bernard Devauchelle of the Centre Hospitalier
Universitaire Amiens in northern France.
But the surgeon who led the team that gave Frenchwoman
Isabelle Dinoire, 38, a new nose, lips and chin last November
said the long-term results depend on the tolerance of the
transplant.
Dinoire must take immune suppressant drugs so her body does
not reject her new face.
Devauchelle doubts partial face transplants will become a
common procedure because they are so complicated to organise and
co-ordinate and patients must be selected and screened very
carefully.
"Maybe in five years we will have 20 facial
transplantations. No more," he said in an interview.
He describes the surgical technique of the operation in the
online edition of The Lancet medical journal.
The pioneering surgery, which was not a life-saving
operation, sparked an ethical debate and raised questions about
the psychological impact on both the recipient and the donor's
family.
In April, Chinese doctors reported replacing two-thirds of
the face of a man who had been attacked by a bear, while British
surgeons are seeking approval to do the world's first full face
transplant.
Since it was carried out, Devauchelle has received about 20
requests from people in Britain, France, Israel and North Africa
for a partial face transplant. None was deemed suitable because
of the state of the injuries or lack of potential donors.
But now Devauchelle and his team have two candidates, a
young boy and a 45-year-old man, for the next transplant. They
are being screened and undergoing psychological tests. French
law allows only a partial face transplant.
- Reuters
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