Face transplant doc: We hope she smiles again
Ξ December 18th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Uncategorized |
(CNN) — A severely disfigured woman received the nose, cheeks, upper jaw and facial tissue from a female cadaver in the first near-total face transplant in the United States, the woman’s surgeon said Wednesday.
Cleveland Clinic doctors replaced 80 percent of a woman’s face two weeks ago in the first such U.S. surgery.
The 22-hour face surgery was completed two weeks ago by a team of eight surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic.
The patient had severe deformity in the middle of her face and was missing her right eye and upper jaw, the Cleveland Clinic doctors said. She could not taste or smell, and she had trouble speaking.
Dr. Maria Siemionow, the head of plastic surgery research at the Cleveland, Ohio, hospital, said many people are "hiding from society because they’re afraid to walk to the grocery stores; they’re afraid to go to streets because they’re called names and humiliated."
"Our patient was called names, and our patient was humiliated," she said. "We very much hope for this special group of patients, there is hope, and one day they will be able to go comfortably from their houses and enjoy the things which we take for granted."
The patient is doing well, the doctors said.
Interactive: More details of the surgery »
Details about the recipient, including her name and age, were withheld at her request.
In the surgery, 80 percent of the woman’s face was transplanted. The forehead and chin were left intact.
In this transplant, tissue from the donor’s face was shaped and fitted into position. Multiple layers of tissue, bone, muscles and blood vessels, nerve grafts and each artery and vein were connected.
Watch an explanation about face transplants »
"Our hope is she should be able to smile again," said Dr. Frank A. Papay, chairman of the Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Institute at the Cleveland Clinic.
With physical therapy, surgeons hope the patient will regain her ability to smell and blink and will have other facial functions.
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