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First full face transplant in London 'by next year'
Benedict Moore-Bridger17.12.08
THE leader of a London medical team said today that they should be able to carry out the world's first full facial transplant within a year.
Professor Peter Butler was speaking after reconstructive surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic in Milwaukee replaced 80 per cent of a woman's face with that of a donor.
Professor Butler is leader of the UK Facial Transplantation Research Team based at the Royal Free Hospital.
He said: "This latest operation once again shows how facial transplantation can help a particular group of the most severely facially injured people, for whom reconstructive surgery has not worked and those who are unable to live a normal life.
"These are people who would otherwise live a terrible twilight life, often shut away from public gaze."
Asked when his team would perform a full facial transplant, Professor Butler said: "We hope to make an announcement within the next 12 months." His team has ethical permission for a research programme of four facial transplants.
The world's first partial face transplant took place in France three years ago on a woman who had been mauled by her dog.
Reader views (1)
I think this is an incredible achievement for medicine but I can't help thinking that we are not addressing the real issue here. That issue is people with facial disfigurement are not acceptable in society. Do these people really'live a terrible twilight life shut away from the public gaze' because they are disfigured or because we have such a rigid few of what a 'normal' face is. Where do we draw the line with this type of surgery?
- Ljp, Surrey
