Doctors prepare for world's first face transplant

Last updated at 10:19 27 July 2005


A medical team in the United States is planning to undertake the world's first face transplant, it emerged today.

Dr Maria Siemionow, director of plastic surgery research at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, is searching for a suitable patient.

Her team will then carry out the controversial procedure using a face removed from a deceased donor.

It would include the epidermis, underlying fat, nerves and blood vessels, but no muscle, according to hospital spokeswoman Eileen Sheil.

Experts would remove damaged tissue and then reattach blood vessels and nerves to the new face.

The operation would last at least 15 hours and involve transplant surgeons, micro surgeons and plastic surgeons.

"We have not identified a candidate yet but we are screening at the moment," Ms Sheil said.

"There are several criteria, for example it cannot be a cancer patient or someone who has had the majority of their body burnt.

"After that we will work with donor organisations to identify suitable facial tissue."

Life-changing operation

Dr Siemionow said the procedure could alter the life of severe burns victims and believes those who were facially disfigured should be allowed to weigh up the risks themselves.

"When you mention a face transplant, people think you are talking about vanity, that someone healthy is going to be walking around with someone else's face," she told the New York Times.

"But within the surgical community, we perceive it as a step forward for these traumatised patients."

Dr Siemionow shrugged off comparisons to the 1997 film Face/Off, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage as characters faces are switched.

"It was okay if you like Travolta," she said. "But it was just science fiction."

The Cleveland Clinic became the first institution to approve such facial transplants last year.

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