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First Human Tongue Transplant

Posted by michael on from the tongue-in-cheek dept.

JThaddeus writes "The New Scientist reports that "The world's first human tongue transplant has been successfully carried out by doctors in Austria." The 14-hour surgery replaced the 42-year old owner's original tongue which had to be removed because of a malignant tumour in his mouth. (Imagine the interviews: "I wanna thank all the doctorth and nurtheth who performed thith thuccethful thurgery.")"

2 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. You've said a mouthful, michael by dacarr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    First successful tongue transplant? I'm curious then, does food taste different because it was somebody else's tongue? Oh yeah, FP! =)

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  2. Changes in Taste by Alethes · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does this change the way the transplant patient tastes certain foods? Will he like foods he didn't like before or dislike foods he used to like? Perhaps his favorite food will be whatever the person that had the tongue before liked? Just wondering.