7th surgery shows face transplants gaining ground

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-13 16:39

Plastic surgeon Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, center, smiles while facing reporters along with other medical staff, during a news conference at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston, Friday, April 10, 2009.

Five years ago, it was the stuff of science fiction: Replace someone's face with one from a dead donor. But on Thursday, Boston doctors performed the world's seventh such transplant — less than a week after one in France — and plans are in the works for more.

"Society is allowing us to do this. I think you're going to see more and more," especially in soldiers disfigured in recent wars, said Dr. Frank Papay, a surgeon who helped perform the nation's first face transplant, in December at the Cleveland Clinic.

Some of the successes have been dazzling. People who couldn't eat, speak normally, or go out in public now can walk the streets without being recognized as someone who got a new face.

Even so, face transplants are likely to remain uncommon, used on only the most severely disfigured, because of the big risks and lifelong need to take medicines to prevent rejection.

"It's not going to be like some people imagine — routine, like people getting a facelift, or cosmetic surgery," said Stuart Finder, director of the Center for Healthcare Ethics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

"We have what appears to be success," he noted, but there is always the chance that some patients may experience serious rejection problems or refuse to stay on the required lifetime of drugs.

Boston doctors stressed the care and psychological screening they required before performing the nation's second face transplant on Thursday. The operation, at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital, was on a man who suffered traumatic facial injuries from a freak accident.

Face transplants go far beyond the transfer of skin and facial features, using things like bone and cartilage for reconstruction. The team led by plastic surgeon Dr. Bohdan Pomahac replaced the man's nose, palate, upper lip, and some skin, muscles and nerves with those of a dead donor.

The hospital would not identify the recipient or donor, but the donor's family members released a statement saying they hope the procedure convinces others to donate.

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