A Team of French Doctors Performs the First Face Transplant

Although in September a series of interviews for the first face transplant which should have been carried out by Dr. Maria Semionova were announced, the French Doctor Jean-Michel Dubernard outrun her and performed the first surgical procedure of this kind.

Prof Jean-Michel Dubernard, together with a team of French doctors, transplanted tissues, muscles and veins from a dead donor to a 38 year old woman whose face had been bitten by dogs.

"The patient is in an excellent state and the transplant looks normal," doctors said.

The woman, whose violent accident took place last year, in Valenciennes, near Lille, has been unable since to talk or chew.

According to Telegraph.co.uk, the surgery started on Sunday, when the doctors removed tissue from the donor, and continued all through the night, the result being the successful grafting of a triangle formed by the nose and mouth on to the recipient.

Currently, the faces are reconstructed using skin and muscle from other regions, like the back for example. Researchers are saying that, while this procedure avoids the rejection of the tissue, a face made from tissue from the back, with slits for eyes and mouth, is not very convincing and requires more than 100 interventions.