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- Second face transplant performed in France
by : Jack Myers
Date : Wed, 24 Jan 2007 09:41:01 GMT -
PARIS - Doctors at Val-de-Marne near Paris have performed the second face transplant in the country and the third overall in the world, on a 27-year-old man said to be having a disfiguring disease.
Le Parisien daily reported that the operation lasted for 15 hours and was carried out on Sunday.
The unnamed man is suffering from von Recklinghausen disease, which is a rare disorder that disfigures the face. The man was given a new nose, face and chin.
"The patient is currently doing well," Laurent Lantieri, the surgeon who led the operation, revealed at a press conference. "The lesion is as bad as Elephant Man's." He was referring to the unfortunate victim of a drug trial in England, which left the man with a ballooned up face. He added that the results of the operation would not be clear for many months.
French woman Isabelle Dinoire was the world's first patient to receive a face transplant in November 2005. Dinoire had been badly disfigured after being attacked by her own dog in May that year. The second face transplant was performed by Chinese surgeons on a man who was attacked by a bear.