China's first face transplant patient will receive his second and final operation in Xijing Hospital in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Wednesday, said the hospital.

Li Guoxing, who received China's first face transplant, looks at himself in a mirror as a doctor gives him an optical check in Xijing Hospital in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province April 25, 2006. [Newsphoto/file]

Li Guoxing, a 30-year old patient, will receive surgery on Wednesday morning to make his right eye and lips appear more natural, said Guo Shuzhong, director of the hospital's plastic surgery department.

Li's face was disfigured in 2004 after an attack by a bear.

Li received a partial face transplant operation at the hospital on April 14, the second such operation in the world following the face transplant of 38-year-old Isabelle Dinoire in France last year.

Li was given a new cheek, upper lip, nose and an eyebrow, all from a single donor, said Guo.

The transplanted tissue is healthy and Li has been doing well, Guo said.

Fang Changli, a 23-year old rural woman, whose face and ears were disfigured after an attack by a pig when she was only one, is likely the next face transplant patient, the hospital said.

Fang's operation will use the skin from her back so it will not be susceptible to rejection, said Guo.