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Full Facial Transplant Is One Step Closer

Posted by timothy on from the get-in-line-for-jolie-lips dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "A Chinese medical team led by Shuzhong Guo of the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi'an has successfully completed the first transplant to include facial bone in a transplant on a man whose face was slashed by a bear. The Chinese graft included muscles, nerves, blood vessels, cartilage and skin and included an intact salivary gland, another first. Two years after the procedure, the man can eat, drink and speak, thanks to the gradual fusing of transplanted nerves and muscles with what remained of the patient's own. This transplant together with the another ground breaking transplant last year by French doctors that removed a huge tumor that had completely infiltrated and disfigured their patient's face, now sets the stage for a full facial transplant."

9 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. saw a doco on this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Saw a pretty good documentary on this about 10 years ago. Ah, here it is.

  2. Additional information by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

    The article doesn't mention this; but John Woo was a technical consultant for the Chinese surgical team.

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    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Additional information by strelitsa · · Score: 4, Funny

      Some days you get the bear, some days the bear gets Woo.

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      No mod points, no meta-moderating/Firehose/all the other free work Slashdot wants me to do.
  3. You have to admire the Chinese... by bigtallmofo · · Score: 5, Funny

    A Chinese medical team...has successfully completed the first facial transplant

    They will do ANYTHING to ensure that their underage gymnasts can compete in the Olympics.

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    I'm a big tall mofo.
  4. Chinese transplant is actually from 2004 by davidwr · · Score: 4, Funny

    From the article:

    The Chinese team, led by Shuzhong Guo of the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi'an, is the first to include facial bone in a face transplant, carried out on 13 April 2006.

    The correct version should read:

    The Chinese team, led by Shuzhong Guo of the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi'an, is the first to include facial bone in a face transplant, carried out on 13 April 2004.

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    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  5. Donors by Artista42 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder how many people would actually be willing to donate their face. It's one thing to donate blood or donate an organ when you die, but to donate part of or the entirety of what makes you most visibly recognizable? Even though the donor would be dead, the family might have issues with disfiguring the corpse.

  6. More pictures at the BBC by Valacosa · · Score: 4, Informative

    I was reading about this story this morning. The BBC has more pictures here.

    What I found funny is that the caption for the first photo warns, "SOME MAY FIND THE FOLLOWING IMAGES DISTURBING." Personally, I found the first photo - the photo to which that warning is attached - the most disturbing. Yes, more disturbing than the tumor-face.

    There's also a photo in there which reminded me of Two-face from The Dark Knight, but it's too blurry to be scary.

    --
    "Live as if you'll die tomorrow." Ridiculous. You could die later today.
  7. Fun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Best thing about a face transplant? Turning up at the donors funeral and making ghost noises.

  8. It's easier for Asians though by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    because they all look alike