The World's First Full Face Transplant

Dave Knott writes "A thirty-member Spanish medical team has achieved the world's first full face transplant. There have been ten previous similar operations, but this is claimed to be the first total transplant, replacing all of the face including some bones. The unnamed recipient originally injured himself in a shooting accident, and received the entire facial skin and muscles — including cheekbones, nose, lips and teeth — of a donor. The complex operation involved extraction of the donor's face, followed by removal of the jaw, nose, cheeks and parts of the eye cavities. Then the medical team took all of the donor face's soft tissue, including musculature, veins and nerves. In order to transplant the face, the medical team has to connect four jugular veins, extract bones and join all the musculature and blood vessels. The recipient has had a chance to see himself in the mirror, and is reportedly satisfied with the results. It is unknown whether he now looks more like John Travolta or Nicolas Cage." The pictures and videos in the linked articles are all computer-generated at this point, so the squeamish need not worry.

Comments

Awesome!

[AnonymousClown]

"It once again shows how facial transplantation can help a small number of people who are the most severely facially injured and for whom reconstructive surgery cannot and has not worked."

But it's not just for the unfortunate folks who have been horribly disfigured, it can be used for the bag over the head girls - you know, the ones with the awesome bodies but ugly faces.

So, save up, get the hot bodied chick a new face and no more paper bags. It will also save the environment because of less paper being used!

Then again, the new hot chick may figure out that she can move on to a hot rich guy and be done with you - so there are risks!