French surgeons perform world's first face transplant

French surgeon Jean-Michel Dubernard led a group of surgeons in performing what is thought to be the world's first face transplant. File picture / Reuters

A team of French surgeons has broken a new ethical and surgical frontier by carrying out the world's first face transplant on a woman who was savaged by a dog.

The 38-year-old patient suffered severe injuries in the attack to her nose, lips and chin.

Her damaged face was replaced by a "triangle" of the same features taken from a dead donor.

The controversial operation was carried out at the University hospital of Amiens on Sunday by a team of French doctors led by Professor Jean Michel Dubernaud, who pioneered the first hand transplant in 1998.

Disclosure of the procedure appeared to have caught the surgical team off guard after details were leaked yesterday.

It is thought they wanted to wait until they could say the operation was a success before making a formal announcement.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said the woman was recovering well.

"The patient is in excellent general condition and the graft is normal," she said.

Experts said the first few days would be crucial with a high risk of technical failure of the transplant.

There would then be the risk of rejection and the patient faces a lifetime on immuno-suppressant drugs.

British specialists oscillated yesterday between admiration for the French team's courage in attempting the difficult procedure and warnings of the dire consequences for the woman if things go wrong.

The Royal College of Surgeons said that, if successful, it would be "a major breakthrough in facial reconstruction." But there were technical, psychological and immuno-suppressant challenges.

The charity Saving Faces, which campaigns for the facially disfigured, said all medical advances were to be celebrated but the face transplant threw up "many moral and ethical issues."

Iain Hutchison, consultant facial surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London and chief executive of the charity said: "The recipient chose to take the risk of the operation failing.

"If the blood vessels become blocked, there's a medium-term risk of the immuno-suppressant drugs failing to control rejection of the donor tissue, and a long-term risk of the drugs causing cancers.