A full face transplant was conducted recently at The Cleveland Clinic. This is an extremely rare procedure and requires many things to be in place.
Full face transplants are a very risky procedure, and face transplants have resulted in complications before. Surgeries like this are very rare but have been possible for years. Patients must have exhausted all other options. Patients must also be healthy and have the mental health to understand the risk. Potential patients must also take immunosuppressing medications for the rest of their life, which is a risk in itself.
The patient in this face transplant had a serious auto accident, and sustained serious injuries to his face. He had very serious damage to his eyes and nose, and had lost his sense of smell. Doctors wanted to preserve the eyesight in his left eye and previous attempts at reconstructive surgery had failed eight times.
The patient was put at the top of the donor list, and the top doctors were called in.
Dr. Francis Papay is the chairman of the Dermatology and Plastic Surgeon Institute at the Cleveland Clinic and was meant to give a lecture on face transplants in Europe when he was called on to perform the surgery.
Dr. Maria Siemionow was also called in. She was in charge of the first ever full face transplant in the United States six years ago.
These two doctors, along with a team of just less than 30 doctors, took almost a full day to complete the procedure.
There was a lot of excitement in the medical community about the procedure performed late October but no details were released until last week. The surgery was a success, and according to reports, the man’s gregarious nature has returned, and his wife is very happy with how well the surgery worked.
There are, however, still a few unknowns. Due to HIPAA regulations, the name of the patient, his age and hometown will remain a secret for as long as the patient chooses to remain anonymous.