Face transplant woman happy with new looks
(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2005-12-06 05:49

Dubernard said that his team planned to carry out "at least five" more facial transplant operations and that the university hospitals of Lyon and Amiens were seeking clinical research funding from the French health ministry.

He said the recipient of the transplant was due to leave hospital within four to six weeks, but that it would take around six months for the transplanted area to recover its full mobility and sensitivity.

On Thursday, she received a first injection of stem cells taken from the donor's bone marrow, aimed at increasing her long-term tolerance of the graft, with a second transfusion planned for next Thursday, he said.

The professor strongly denied that the woman was disfigured following a suicide attempt, and slammed as "odious" the publication of confidential information about the patient and donor.

Doctors in Europe and the United States have had the technical ability to carry out facial transplants for some time, but held back because of ethical concerns about the high-risk procedure.

The graft can fail if the minute nerves and tiny blood vessels of the face do not connect properly, and there is a risk of rejection by the body's immune system, which perceives tissue grafted from a donor as foreign.