French, in First, Use a Transplant to Repair a Face

NY Times ^ | December 1, 2005 | LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN

[neverdem]

Surgeons in France have for the first time performed a partial face transplant, a surgeon who led one of the two teams that performed the operation said yesterday.

The recipient of the transplant was a 38-year-old woman who had been severely disfigured in an attack by a dog, said the surgeon, Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard of Lyon. The operation was carried out in Amiens on Sunday.

In a brief telephone interview, Dr. Dubernard said the two surgical teams had grafted a nose, lips and chin from a donor who had been declared brain dead onto the woman's face.

Hospital officials said the woman who received the transplant did not wish to be identified. They gave no details about what measures, if any, had been taken to reconstruct her face short of a transplant. "The patient is well and fine, and the graft is O.K.," Dr. Dubernard said. He said a news conference would be held tomorrow in Lyon to discuss the case.

The surgery represents the first foray into a much-debated realm of medicine. A number of other surgical teams in the United States, France and the Netherlands have announced plans to perform various types of face transplants. But none are known to have performed the procedure. Face transplants are among the most disputed frontiers in transplantation science because they are so risky and no one can say what a patient will look like afterward.

Ethics committees in France and England have rejected proposals to perform full face transplants until...

[neverdem]

Dr. Dubernard said his team planned to do another transplant - of bone marrow - on the woman while she was in the hospital in Lyon. Although bone narrow transplants are a standard treatment for some conditions, in this case the hope would be that it would increase the patient's tolerance to a graft.???

[decal]

I'm thinking I don't want to see any pix of this...

[precedence]

I'm thinking the French government needs a new face....

-- my thoughts, Trever Online

[martin_fierro]

[Tall_Texan]

French, in First, Use a Transplant to Repair a Face

Since the French are two-faced, no donors were forced to sacrifice an essential body part.

[Zack Nguyen]

Now that was a Zinger.

[Rocketman]

It is creepy to think that some one would wear a dead person's nose, lips and chin I guess this was some other woman's face from the bridge of the nose down.

Could you imagine kissing a dead woman's lips?

[Marie]

I'm so happy that they're starting to do this. One can debate the pros and cons of plastic surgery to make a nose a little thinner or boobs a bit bigger, but this procedure is badly needed by some people who are dealing with a serious mess. Right now, I don't think the procedure is developed enough to make someone look perfectly normal, but it can help a person feel human again.

Thank God for modern medicine!

[prophetic]

well since its only natural and obvious to be the french.

In the USA we have ol long faced John F'n Kerry who've established in the culture what it means to be 2-FACED on every issue!!!

[Neanderthal]

The French will be lining up for this.

[CrazyIvan]

"Could you imagine kissing a dead woman's lips?"

This has real potential for a first wife joke and a rim-shot.

[herkbird]

I've seen what dog bites, broken bottle fights, fires, and car accidents can do to someones face that torments them for the remainder of their lives. I see no reason why a total facial transplant can't be used, much less a partial face transplant that would make life more bearable for the victims noted above. If you could repair your face so you wouldn't look like a monster, I'm sure you would have no problem giving it a try. If it's a failure you still remain a shut in as most of these people don't get out much since they look like freak shows already.

I remember right after I had brain surgery and the scars were still kind of raunchy looking, people would move away from me when my dad dragged me into a restaurant. Once my hair covered over the scars I no longer had a problem.

People that can't hide their scars, hide themselves. I hope this treatment makes a new world for the many people that need it. Many of our brave soldiers could benefit from these procedures to make them a better life after a bad facial war wound. This sounds like a miracle that many people pray for every day that really need it to improve their lives.

[Crim]

Here's another one so obvious I'm surprised I got it first...

"It is rumored the french will beging work insterting a SPINE"

*rimshot*

[Crim]

*Note to self...spell check is your friend*

[chae]

Really, my only issue with this is what do you do if the body rejects it?
What do you replace it with?

[herkbird]

By starting out slow and only using facial parts, they can always use skin grafts to cover up rejected areas. I'm sure they are mostly doing this on worst case scenarios where a rejection problem wouldn't make that much difference as the people don't go out in the public anyway. I'm sure over time the rate of rejection and perfecting of this procedure will make it a very worthwhile risk for those with extremely severe facial damage. The transplanting of body parts has come a long way from the first heart transplant and medical science is getting better all the time except for curing certain diseases.

[kublia khan]

Pawleeeeeeease for the Love of God somebody send this doctor a picture of Hillary and ask if there's any hope.

[kublia khan]

Amen, on a serious note; and thank you for sharing a piece of your personal life it helps the rest of us to see things much more clearly.

[ExDemSince92]

I remember right after I had brain surgery and the scars were still kind of raunchy looking, people would move away from me when my dad dragged me into a restaurant. Once my hair covered over the scars I no longer had a problem.

I was in the same boat at age 16. People would stare and stay a good distance from me until my hair grew back. Kids, in particular, were very cruel about it.

Fortunately, time fades the scars - Both physical and emotional. A good thing as time is doing the same to my hairline :)

[neverdem]

Applying Public Health Principles to the HIV Epidemic

The nose cells that may help the paralysed walk again

For the health care professionals on my health & science list, and anyone else who cares, What Should We Tell Our Patients About Guns?

What's wrong with the following answer? "I Don't Know." It seems to me that criminology and sociology provides plenty of evidence. Medicine's perspective is not very enlightening on this latter subject. FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list. Anyone can post any unposted, unrelated link as they see fit.