British Surgeon Foresees First Full Face Transplant Within A Year

The next one-year might see the announcement of world's first full face transplant, said the leader of the UK Facial Transplantation Research Team.

It was after the first facial transplant operation was carried out in the United States that Professor Peter Butler predicted full face transplant surgery within a year in UK.

US Completes First Face Transplant
A team of Ohio doctors have replaced 80 percent of a woman's face in what is considered the world's first nearly complete facial transplant, the Cleveland Clinic announced Tuesday.

In the US surgery, Dr Maria Siemionow, reconstructive surgeon at The Cleveland Clinic, in Milwaukee, replaced 80 percent of a woman's face with that of a female donor.

"We congratulate Dr Siemionow and her Cleveland transplantation team and wish the brave patient well for the future," The Daily Express quoted Professor Butler as saying.

When asked when the UK team would perform the world's first full facial transplant, Butler said: "We hope to make an announcement about this within the next 12 months."

British Surgeons Gear Up to Perform First Full-Face Transplant
Egged on by the positive outcome of partial face transplants, British surgeons are now gearing up to perform a complete face transplant,

The team, which is based at the Royal Free Hospital in north London, has been granted ethical permission for a research programme of four facial transplants.

The first partial face transplant in the world was carried out in France three years ago on a woman who had been mauled by her dog.

It was followed by two other surgeries-a Chinese farmer attacked by a bear and a European man disfigured by a genetic condition.

However, such transplants are often surrounded by controversy because they are aimed at improving a patient's quality of life rather than saving it, and require recipients to take immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of their life.

Lord Ganesha - God of Transplant Surgery
If the story of Lord Ganesha is true, as depicted in the Hindu mythology, He is, perhaps, the first example of xeno-transplantation in the world.

Source-ANI
PRI/S