| First face transplant is considered successful in spite of serious complications.
Two years after the operation, the first woman in the world with transplanted face feels good and is completely satisfied with intervention results. However, during this period, she had to go through lot of complications as spoken in detail and published in New England Journal of Medicine. Unique operation was carried out on November, 27, 2005 by team of French surgeons under the supervision of Bernard Devauchelle and Jean-Michel Dubernard. 38-year old Isabelle Dinoire, disfigured due a dog attack. Chin, lips, cheeks and the parts of nose were grafted using tissues, taken from dead donor. Besides soon after the intervention, bone marrow cells of same donor were transplanted: Thus, doctors expected to reduce undesirable reactions of immune system to alien tissues.
However, neither transplantation of bone marrow cells nor the regular dose of powerful immune-suppressants helped in preventing the reactions of rejection of transplant. Probability transplant rejection occurred twice with Dinoire – immediately after a month of operation and in June, 2006. However, in both the cases, doctors succeeded in completely stopping the rejection using strong immune-suppressants. To avoid similar episodes, doctors recommended Dinoire to undergo photo-chemotherapy (action of photosensitive medicinal substances in combination with radiation to UV rays), is stated in article. In turn, prescribing immune-suppressants caused other complications: Last year, Isabelle Dinoire had to survive neurotic syndrome, numerous insignificant skin infections, caused by herpes and pox viruses, informed the doctors.
Despite of hardships faced, Dubernard and his colleagues were pleased with results of operation. At present, sensitivity of lower portion of face and function of facial muscles of the patient are restored fully: she now can carefully eat and drink, smile, and also do not experience speech problems. In spite of the fact that the scars are noticeable, the scars can be masked using cosmetics. “Patient is no more apprehensive to go out onto the streets or meet people at evening parties”, - stated French surgeons. Isabelle Dinoire has become the first person, who has undergone partial face transplant. Subsequently, two more operations were performed: One in April 2006, when Chinese doctors transplanted facial tissues to hunter, who was attacked by a bear and the second was registered in January 2007, when French surgeons transplanted face to a man, who was suffering from a rare genetic disorder it has been made two such operations: in April, 2006 Chinese doctors have replaced obverse fabrics to the hunter, a undergone attack of a bear, and in January, 2007 the French surgeons have replaced the person to the man with rare genetic disease. |
A year and a half later, the recipient of the first successful partial face transplant is showing good progress - even her smile has returned completely. The French woman, Isabelle Dinoire, was the first person in the world to undergo a successful partial face transplant operation, and she has been under a close attention of her doctors and the media since then. After the success of Isabelle, only two more operations of such kind have been successfully performed in the world - one in China and another one in France. Inspired by the results, doctors say that full face transplant operation may become feasible sooner than we expect.
