The New Face Lift

RiotXIX writes to tell us that US surgeons plan on moving forward with their newest experimental medical practice, a face transplant. Doctors have already succeeded in making this practice a reality with cadavers donated for medical research and will soon begin interviewing a shortlist of patients to determine who, if anyone, will be first up for this procedure. From the article: 'The chance it will work is around 50% and experts have expressed safety and ethical concerns about the procedure. The recipient would have to take powerful anti-rejection drugs for life, which carry considerable long-term health risks, says the Royal College of Surgeons of England, which formed a working party to look at the issue earlier this year.'

Comments

let me be the first to say

[mrfibbi]

WHAT THE HELL? Then I thought "oh, okay, it's april fools." Then I remembered that no, it wasn't, and it was just National Talk-Like-A-Pirate-Day. I'd be a little weirded out if someone started walking around with my dead wife's face. But that's just me.

Re:let me be the first to say

[gwydion04]

Well, actually it's quite unlikely that the face would look like your wife's at all. The typical appearance of a face is produced by the bones and musculature beneath the skin. At most, the coloration and hair distribution of the donor's face would be preserved.

(sorry to hear about your wife, btw... unless you were speaking hypothetically)

Re:let me be the first to say

[CoffeeJedi]

without the same bone structure and musculature, i don't think that the recipient would have an exact copy of your dead wife's face

Answer: Cloning

[rfc1394]

Someone once pointed out that if we can ever develop cloning successfully we can forget the use of anti-rejection drugs, blood type checks, and other such things. If you get a transplant from your own clone, everything you're getting is yours, the blood type and every bit of dna is a perfect match, the rest of your body will not know the difference and thus "will welcome our new clone masters."

A really Brave New World.

Re:Who's a good candidate for this?

[macemoneta]

The recipient would have to take powerful anti-rejection drugs for life

Where "for life" is defined as being "until medical science can figure out a way around the problem". Chimeras have distinct DNA in parts of their body, yet somehow their immune systems have recognized the tissue as not requiring an immune response. Eventually medical science will figure out how to "introduce" new tissue to the body to prevent rejection.

Why a transplant?

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Who would trade burn scars for 50% chance of death, likelyhood of chronic pain, likelyhood of further disfigurement, and no immune system for the rest of their lives?

Actually an impaired immune system - the drugs just suppress part of it. Still no fun though. (That part goes after cancers and virus-infested-but-functioning tissues, too, among other things...)

What I don't see is why they're replacing the whole skin. Why not take off the scar tissue and replace it with a collagen mask seeded with skin cells? This is done with many burn victims (along with at least one person who lost her whole dermis due to a rare drug reaction).

Perhaps it's because the damage is too deep and they need to replace the nerves, blood vessels, muscles, and other plumbing?