Full Face Transplants...

jumpguy

A team of 30 Spanish doctors say they have successfully performed the world's first full face transplant.

A man injured in a shooting accident received the entire facial skin and muscles - including cheekbones, nose, lips and teeth - of a donor.

The man is recovering well after the 22-hour operation, said a spokesperson from Vall d'Hebron University Hospital.

Another 10 face transplants have been carried out around the world, but this is believed to be the most complex.

Hospital spokesperson Bianca Bont told the BBC: "This is the first total face transplant.

"There have been 10 operations of this kind in the world - this is the first to transplant all of the face and some bones of the face."

The man was operated on in March, but details of the operation have only just been revealed.

He had been left unable to breathe, swallow, or talk properly after an accident five years ago.

He was considered for a full face transplant after nine previous operations failed.

A team of 30 experts carried out the operation on 20 March at the hospital in Barcelona.

The man has since seen himself in the mirror and was calm and satisfied, the leader of the medical team, Joan Pere Barret, told a news conference.

'Achievement'

The first partial face transplant was carried out by doctors in Amiens, France, in 2005.

Isabelle Dinoire, a 38-year-old woman who had been mauled by her dog, received a new nose, chin and lips.

Since then partial face transplants have been carried out in China and the US.

British experts say the Spanish operation may be the most complex yet.

It appears to include more bone and much more of the lower part of the face.

A spokesperson for the UK's Facial Transplantation Research Team, which has ethical permission to carry out a full face transplant, said it was "a tremendous achievement".

"This appears to be the most complex facial transplant operation carried out so far worldwide," he said.

"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."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8639437.stm

So....how do you feel about full-face transpants? To be perfectly honest...I'm completely weirded out by the idea. In the case of being a donor, I definetly do not like the thought of someone else having my face after I die. Although, I would be an organ donor. The face is just so different from any other organ though...it's a major of your identity...and how people recognise you. If I was the reciever...well, it's hard to know. The patient in the article have his face damaged for 5 years before, which obviously must've been devastating to his quality of life. If one was in his situation, could you say you wouldn't consider it?

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

Totoro_

It improves the life of someone greatly by using the face of someone who is already dead??

In this case it's win. The donor greatly improves a persons quality of life so there death no matter how tragic has benefited. It's a milestone for medical science and when I did I want no part of me to be ''wasted''. I wont be needed any more so people can do what ever they want with my body

Bobalicious93

I've no problem with it in this form, but I'd be afraid it developing into a purely cosmetic thing, with people looking for new faces just cause they don't like their own.

Davidius

Bobalicious93 wrote: »

I've no problem with it in this form, but I'd be afraid it developing into a purely cosmetic thing, with people looking for new faces just cause they don't like their own.

Then we'd have people being killed so they could harvest their faces. The worst part is that that's feasible.

Totoro_

Davidius wrote: »

Then we'd have people being killed so they could harvest their faces. The worst part is that that's feasible.

If Hollywood hears about this :rolleyes:

Well currently no other skin-ish transplants are not being misused so I doubt this will anyway it's going to be in experimental for a long time.

Davidius

Totoro_ wrote: »

If Hollywood hears about this :rolleyes:

Well currently no other skin-ish transplants are not being misused so I doubt this will anyway it's going to be in experimental for a long time.

Feasible but not likely. :pac: Would be good for a tabloid headline though.

Anyhow I don't really see much of a problem with this. For one it seems pretty doubtful that they'd actually just completely rebuild the face of the dead donor and either way they're too dead to care. The benefits of improving somebody's life so greatly outweighs the minor 'weirdness' of it all.

Craguls

As many of you know being a science enthusiast and all, I'm all for advances in healthcare and whatnot.

However have none of you seen this?


:O

A Neurotic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvepYYNjfBk

Weirdness vs. Devastated life. No brainer.

jumpguy

If there was a full-face donor card, would you all sign up to it right now?

lou91

Hmm, its odd. In the whole, looks vs personality thing I always maintain that face is a part of personality. It'd be a big change.

Anyone else reminded of the scrubs episode where a woman got a face operation and as a side effect ended up attractive but decided to go back to being "bet down" because it wasn't really her?

(Ugh, just remembered me how annoyingly preachy scrubs used to get)

RandomUserName!

RandomUserName! wrote: »

Hmm, its odd. In the whole, looks vs personality thing I always maintain that face is a part of personality. It'd be a big change.

Anyone else reminded of the scrubs episode where a woman got a face operation and as a side effect ended up attractive but decided to go back to being "bet down" because it wasn't really her?

(Ugh, just remembered me how annoyingly preachy scrubs used to get)

Yeah, but... after an accident that leaves their face disfigured, it would also be a big change! :pac: There's not much you can do to get the original face back.

And jumpguy, I don't think I would become a full-face donor. I don't think many people would want my face :P On the other hand, they should take what they can get. :mad:

Seren_

It's so cool that medicine and science have came this far that people can have totally new faces! This guy can have a much better quality of life now, as it says he wasn't even able to breathe properly since the accident :eek:

I think I would find it a little bit weird though, even if I was disfigured beforehand... Can you imagine how strange it would be to look in the mirror and see someone different looking out at you?

Piste

This isn't like how you think it is, it's not like he's suddenly identical to the previous guy, I saw pictures of the French woman (or it could have been another partial face transplant patient) and she still looked incredibly disfigured, just less so.

KnifeWRENCH

jumpguy wrote: »

If there was a full-face donor card, would you all sign up to it right now?

Yeah, I would anyway. It's not like I'm going to be using my face, or any part of my body, when I'm dead so they can do whatever the hell they want with it when I'm gone.

Pigwidgeon

I have an organ donor card, and if it included facial transplants, I'd have no objections. I've had the card since I was about 12, because by my logic, I'm not going to be using my organs when I'm dead, so I may as well try and prolong somebody else's life, instead of just letting perfectly good organs rot in the ground. So I'd have no problems with them using my face. I think for donors in this case, the remaining family and next of kin might have more issues with it, than the donor before they died.

If I needed one, I'd take it. Looks are only a certain amount, and if it improves my quality of life, I'd take any treatment I was offered. Like he couldn't breathe, swallow or talk properly for five years. He deserves any chance he can get at having a somewhat normal and liveable life.