Worlds First Complete Face Transplant

Spanish surgeon carryout most complex full face transplant to date…

On March 20th, a team of 30 doctors from the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital operated for almost 24 hours to complete what is said to be the world’s first full face transplant.

The man, who was left unable to breathe, swallow or talk properly following a shooting accident 5 years ago, received the entire face of a donor – skin, muscles, cheekbones, lips and teeth.

The man is now recovering well and is said to happy and calm with his new appearance.

Dr. Joan Pere Barret, the lead surgeon at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona said:

“It is a little bit like the movie [Face-Off], if you look him in the face, you see a normal person, like anyone else we have as a patient in the hospital,”

In a four-hour operation, veins, arteries, skin, muscle and bone were taken from a donor cadaver. Halfway through that surgery, the recipient was anesthetized and his previous skin grafts were removed. Using microvascular surgery, doctors spent the next day stitching the donor’s blood vessels into the recipient’s.

Worlds First Full Transplant

1. Patient lost jaw, nose and other parts of his face in shooting accident.
2. Donor’s facial skin, muscles, nose, cheekbones, teeth and jawbone used to rebuild patient’s face. Metal plates used to support new facial structure, which included reconstructing the roof of the mouth.
3. Donor’s nerves, blood vessels and skin connected to patient. Patient will have to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of his life.

Since 2005 approximately 10 face transplants have been carried out across the world, but this is believed to be the most complex to date. Hospital spokesperson Bianca Bont said:

“This is the first total face transplant…There have been 10 operations of this kind in the world – this is the first to transplant all of the face and some bones of the face.”

Click here to read our previous articles on the World’s First Face Transplant Patient>>>and America’s First Face Transplant Patient>>>

A spokesperson for the UK’s Facial Transplantation Research Team, which has ethical permission to carry out a full face transplant, said it was “a tremendous achievement”.

“This appears to be the most complex facial transplant operation carried out so far worldwide,” he said.

“It once again shows how facial transplantation can help a small number of people who are the most severely facially injured and for whom reconstructive surgery cannot and has not worked.”