First Face Transplant

[Perfection]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051130/ap_on_he_me/france_face_transplant

LYON, France - Doctors in France said they had performed the world's first partial face transplant, forging the way into a risky medical frontier by operating on a woman disfigured by a dog bite.

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The 38-year-old woman, who wants to remain anonymous, had a nose, lips and chin grafted onto her face from a brain-dead donor whose family gave consent. The operation, performed Sunday, was led by a surgeon already famous for a transplant breakthrough, Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard.

"The patient's general condition is excellent and the transplant looks normal," said a statement issued Wednesday from the hospital in the northern city of Amiens where the operation took place. Dubernard would not discuss the surgery, but confirmed that it involved the nose, lips and chin.

"We still don't know when the patient will get out," he said. A news conference is planned for Friday.

Scientists in China have performed scalp and ear transplants, but experts say the mouth and nose are the most difficult parts of the face to transplant. In 2000, Dubernard did the world's first double forearm transplant.

The surgery drew both praise and sobering warnings over its potential risks and ethical and psychological ramifications. If successful — something that may not be known for months or even years — the procedure offers hope to people horribly disfigured by burns, accidents or other tragedies.

The woman was "severely disfigured" by a dog bite in May that made it difficult for her to speak and chew, according to a joint statement from the hospital in Amiens and another in the southern city of Lyon, whose doctors collaborated in the surgery.

Such injuries are "extremely difficult, if not impossible" to repair using normal surgical techniques, the statement said.

"For pushing the bounds of science, they are to be applauded, as long as they have got full informed consent from the patient and the donor's family," added Dr. Iain Hutchison, chief executive of the London-based Facial Surgery Research Foundation.

Scientists around the world are working to perfect techniques involved in transplanting faces. Today's best treatments leave many people with facial disfigurement and scar tissue that doesn't look or move like natural skin.

A complete face transplant, which involves applying a sheet of skin in one operation, has never been done before. The procedure is complex, but uses standard surgical techniques.

Critics say the surgery is too risky for something that is not a matter of life or death, as regular organ transplants are.

The main worry for both a full face transplant and a partial effort is organ rejection, causing the skin to slough off.

"It is not clear whether an individual could be left worse off in the event that a face transplant failed," said Dr. Stephen Wigmore, chair of the ethics committee of the British Transplantation Society.

Complications also include infections that turn the new face black and require a second transplant or reconstruction with skin grafts, perhaps even one or two years later. Drugs to prevent rejection are needed for life and raise the risk of kidney damage and cancer.

Such concerns have delayed British plans to attempt the operation. In France, ethics authorities rejected an application to try a full face transplant last year, but left the door open for a partial procedure involving the mouth and nose.

In the United States, the Cleveland Clinic is among those planning to attempt a face transplant.

The French surgery "doesn't change our plans," said Cleveland surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow. "We are really looking for the right candidate," which she described as "severely disfigured patients which have already had the conventional treatment" and for whom a transplant is the last chance.

Dubernard, who is also a lawmaker in France's lower house of parliament, collaborated in the operation with the Amiens hospital's Dr. Bernard Devauchelle. Weekly news magazine Le Point reported that the recipient lives in Valenciennes, in northeast France, and that the donor's facial organs were removed in a hospital in Lille, about 60 miles from where the transplant was performed.

Dubernard also led teams that performed a hand transplant in September 1998 and the world's first double forearm transplant in January 2000.

The hand transplant recipient, New Zealander Clint Hallam, later had it amputated. Doctors said he failed to take the required drugs and his body rejected the limb.

The double-forearm recipient, Denis Chatelier from France, said in 2003 that he had regained "normal usage" of his hands and was even able to shave himself. His forearms were severed in a model rocket accident.

Doctors from Jinling Hospital in Nanjing, China, reported that in September 2003, they transplanted two ears, part of the scalp and other facial skin from a brain-dead young man to a 72-year-old woman with advanced skin cancer.

Four months later, there were no signs of rejection or tumor recurrence, but it is not known how the patient fared after that.

Doctors around the world have performed partial face transplants using the patients' own skin, but these don't require anti-rejection drugs.

___

Associated Press writers Emma Ross in London, Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and John Leicester in Paris contributed to this report.

 

[El_Machinae]

Can you imagine the stress for all the people involved.
.Consenting to have someone take your kid's face?
.Putting on someone else's face?


Wow.

 

[amadeus]

I thought the first face transplant was when they put that baboons' face onto Sarah Jessica Parker.

Moderator Action: Warned for trolling and Spam - Rik

 

[Bugfatty300]

Wow. That kind of operation is actually kind of disturbing and pointless.

 

[Little Raven]

Wow. That kind of operation is actually kind of disturbing and pointless.

It's no more disturbing than any other organ transplant. And I doubt the woman receiving it thought it was pointless.

 

[mitsho]

pointless? No.

Imagine your face was burnt during a car accident. In fact, your whole body was burnt then. Wouldn't you rather have a human face than something out of a horror movie?

Then there is the other case: Have you seen the latest bond movie? In there, a criminal gets his face transplanted to evade bond...

m

 

[Irish Caesar]

^ The latest Bond movie? Blofeld remade his face back in the late '60's!

It amazes me that transplanting internal organs is far more routine and less dangerous than transplanting a face.

 

[mitsho]

hmm, ok, I forgot him. forgive me please...

mitsho

 

[Riesstiu IV]

Wow all the acne infested D&D (also includes those who play Magic: the Gathering) nerds in the world can rejoice now!

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

Are the French that worried about beauty that they are willing to risk this. Guess so. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

I heard awhile back that doctors successfully performed a full head transplant one a pair of apes.

 

[Irish Caesar]

^ If your face is so disfigured that you can't chew or swallow properly, then I would say it is worth it.

 

[slip79]

Definately worth it.
Besides if she doesn't quite like the new face she could have plastic surgery on it again later, that is if it's possible.....

 

[Ansar]

Cool. Hopefully this will be a new career?

 

[MobBoss]

Bah, this is old news. They did it originally in a movie with Nicolas Cage and John Travolta years ago.

 

[Bugfatty300]

pointless? No.

Imagine your face was burnt during a car accident. In fact, your whole body was burnt then. Wouldn't you rather have a human face than something out of a horror movie?

Its pointless because you have to take anti-rejection pills (which can be pretty dangerous) for the rest of your life or face certain death.

Its not like a liver or a heart or any other major organ transplant where the person has to have it or they will die. You can live with facial scars. But you may not be able to live your entire live with out an immune system in order to keep your body from attacking your face.

Is that really worth it? To some people yes, but that doesn't mean much to me since I see it as just another example of people believing you have to be "pretty" to have friends or be happy and they are willing pay incredible amounts of money and rescources and risk their life to be "pretty"

This is a step back in my opinion. Though it is their choice in the long run.

 

[bhsup]

I wouldn't say it's pointless. People with many medical conditions have to take medications of one type or another everyday for the rest of their lives or risk death.

Personally, I think it's great if it really pans out as a viable treatmen for those that might need it.

 

[RedWolf]

Its pointless because you have to take anti-rejection pills (which can be pretty dangerous) for the rest of your life or face certain death.

Its not like a liver or a heart or any other major organ transplant where the person has to have it or they will die. You can live with facial scars. But you may not be able to live your entire live with out an immune system in order to keep your body from attacking your face.

Is that really worth it? To some people yes, but then this is another example of people believing you have to be "pretty" to have friends or be happy and they are willing pay incredible amounts of money and rescources and risk their life to be "pretty"

This is a step back in my opinion. Though it is their choice in the long run.

Ok fair enough - but we're not talking about some minor scarring here.. we're talking about massive facial damage - she probably made small children cry.

I can't even imagine how that kind of deformity would affect your self image and ability to even just function in society... If it was you, the idea might not seem so pointless. This woman may have just been given her life back.

 

[Bugfatty300]

People with many medical conditions have to take medications of one type or another everyday for the rest of their lives or risk death

They don't really have choice do they? They either take the medication or die. Its the same with some one who needs a heart or liver transplant.

They either got through the operation and live another 20, 30 years and take anti-rejection medication or don't and they die. Simple as that.

This isn't the case with a face transplant. The person has a choice of living either way.

People generally choose life over death.

Do you think cancer victims who undergo extensive radiation treatment enjoy looking and feeling like holocaust survivors? No, they do it so they can live.

People who want to have a face transplant, breast enlargement, botox or what ever are doing it to improve themselves in the eyes of society and what society says a normal person is and thus ultimately for their own social well being.

Though its their choice to do it and I think they should be allowed to have such an operation done with consent from the other person's family.

 

[Irish Caesar]

^ Um, this isn't anything like a breast enlargement or botox operation; this was a huge quality of life issue. The woman couldn't speak or chew her food normally due her disfigurement. It's not like she just wasn't satisfied with her appearance.

 

[bhsup]

They don't really have choice do they? They either take the medication or die.

Hate to be nitpicky, but they do still have a choice there, and believe it or not but some people choose NOT to have treatments and just let it (death) happen.