French transplant surgeon Dr. Laurent Lantieri
and his colleagues have written a report on face transplantation, published in
Friday's issue of the British medical journal Lancet, which reveals that face
transplants are more feasible than previously thought, although they still pose
significant technical problems and complications are more common than with most
transplants.
In March, it was announced that Brigham and Women’s Hospital was given
permission by the New England Organ Bank to be the first facility in the United
States to perform partial face transplants on eligible patients whose faces have
been disfigured. To be eligible, recipients will have to be kidney transplant
patients who have suffered facial burns, trauma, or skin cancer that has left
them with severe facial disfigurement.
On November 27, 2005, 38-year-old Isabelle Dinoire was the first person to ever
undergo a face transplant intervention, after being severely attacked by her
dog. The consequences of the attack were the amputation of her distal nose, her
upper and lower lips, the entire chin and parts of her right and left cheeks.
The donor was a brain-dead 46-year-old woman with the same blood group (O+) and
five compatible HLA antigens.
The intervention was not only controversial
and risky, but also required multiple approvals from the Local Protection of
Persons Committee, the French Agency for Health Safety and the French
Biomedicine Agency. The surgeon responsible for the face transplant was
Jean-Michel Dubernard, who admitted that not only was the intervention a
difficult one, but the recovery process was even more complicated.
Subsequently, a 30-year-old Chinese man who had part of his face torn off in a
bear attack in October 2004 underwent transplantation in April 2006 that
included connection of arteries and veins, along with repair of the nose, lip,
sinuses and other damaged facial structures.
Another case that made headlines was that of a 29-year-old male patient in
France who suffered from a disfiguring facial tumor called a neurofibroma. He
received transplantation surgery in January 2007 and was able to work normally
13 months after the transplant.
However, all three cases confronted with recurring episodes of rejection.
Patients do not look like their donors, but as they looked before disfigurement,
as the transplanted face is fitted on the person's existing framework which
gives their distinct figure.
Source : eFluxMedia
