FACE/OFF... literally
Dec 16, 2008 12:12:02 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2008 12:12:02 GMT -5
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28253624/
Cleveland, Ohio - The Cleveland Clinic announced Tuesday it has performed the nation’s first almost total face transplant.
A hospital spokeswoman said Tuesday that the operation was done a couple weeks ago. Reconstructive surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow replaced 80 percent of a woman’s face with that of a dead female donor.
The patient’s name and age were not released.
It is the first such transplant in the United States. The world’s first occurred in France three years ago on a woman who had been mauled by her dog. Two others have been announced since then — a Chinese farmer attacked by a bear and a European man disfigured by a genetic condition.
The French patient, Isabelle Dinoire, received the lips, nose and chin of a brain-dead woman. Although the 15-hour surgery was declared a success, Dinoire's life remained difficult as she coped with post-operative complications, including kidney failure and problems with her immune system trying to reject the new skin.
The Cleveland Clinic had been given the go-ahead to do face transplants from its in-house review board in 2004. Since then, it has been identifying patients who were in most in need of the procedure and also mentally capable of dealing with a transplant.
There are considerable ethical issues confronting face transplant procedures, says bioethicist Art Caplan, Ph.D. Medical teams and patients need to be prepared for the possibility of tissue rejection and the complex psychological factors unique to face transplants.
"It raises issues both for the donor family and the recipient's family and friends," says Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. "Our personal identity is tied up in the face in a way that isn't true about the liver or kidney."
The Cleveland Clinic team of physicians are expected to detail the procedure at a news conference on Wednesday, Dec. 17.
A hospital spokeswoman said Tuesday that the operation was done a couple weeks ago. Reconstructive surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow replaced 80 percent of a woman’s face with that of a dead female donor.
The patient’s name and age were not released.
It is the first such transplant in the United States. The world’s first occurred in France three years ago on a woman who had been mauled by her dog. Two others have been announced since then — a Chinese farmer attacked by a bear and a European man disfigured by a genetic condition.
The French patient, Isabelle Dinoire, received the lips, nose and chin of a brain-dead woman. Although the 15-hour surgery was declared a success, Dinoire's life remained difficult as she coped with post-operative complications, including kidney failure and problems with her immune system trying to reject the new skin.
The Cleveland Clinic had been given the go-ahead to do face transplants from its in-house review board in 2004. Since then, it has been identifying patients who were in most in need of the procedure and also mentally capable of dealing with a transplant.
There are considerable ethical issues confronting face transplant procedures, says bioethicist Art Caplan, Ph.D. Medical teams and patients need to be prepared for the possibility of tissue rejection and the complex psychological factors unique to face transplants.
"It raises issues both for the donor family and the recipient's family and friends," says Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. "Our personal identity is tied up in the face in a way that isn't true about the liver or kidney."
The Cleveland Clinic team of physicians are expected to detail the procedure at a news conference on Wednesday, Dec. 17.
