French face transplant woman is eating and talking

LYON, France - A 38-year-old French woman was recovering well after receiving the world's first partial face transplant, and doctors said today she was happy with her new face and had thanked them for their work.

French surgeons defended their decision to put aside ethical concerns and health risks in carrying out the procedure in which the patient received a nose, lips and chin from a brain-dead donor after being mauled by her own dog.

"Her first words were 'thank you'," Bernard Devauchelle, one of the surgeons who performed the pioneering surgery on Sunday, told a news conference in the city of Lyon.

He said the patient regained consciousness 24 hours after the operation and there were no post-operative complications. She had been eating and talking since early this week.

"She saw her face and is happy," Jean-Michel Dubernard, the other specialist who carried out the operation at Amiens in northern France. "The patient is doing well this morning, physically and psychologically."

The woman is from the northeastern city of Lille but wants to remain anonymous.

Doctors say there are still risks of complications, including rejection of the tissue and an increased danger of cancer because of the drugs used to prevent the immune system from rejecting the new facial parts.

The doctors said she would have to undergo physical and speech therapy as well as seeing a psychologist, and it would take several months for her face to regain full sensitivity.

A further operation is possible if doctors consider it necessary, they said.

The transplant has given hope to people disfigured by burns or accidents, but it has also raised psychological and ethical issues for the recipient and donor family.

"There are many, many ethical problems," Dubernard said.

But he went on to justify the decision to carry out the 15-hour operation, which involved 50 people.

"My philosophy, our philosophy, is that we are doctors and we have a patient with a very severe disfigurement related to a dog bite," he said.

"It was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to repair with classical techniques of surgery. As doctors, if we have the possibility to improve (the condition of) our patient, that's what we can do."

In the operation, the woman received transplanted tissue, muscles, arteries and veins.

The surgeons said she had been attacked by the dog in her own home when she stepped on it late at night. She had been drowsy after taking medicine to calm her down following an argument with her daughter.

Unlike heart, liver and kidney transplants, it was not life-saving surgery but the woman chose to have the operation despite considerable risks.

The doctors said she had been having trouble eating and speaking because of her injuries, suffered last May.

Dubernard is a specialist at a hospital in Lyon who has also carried out hand transplants. Devauchelle is from the Amiens hospital.

Carine Camby, the head of the French agency of biomedicine which oversees organ donations, said the surgery had not taken priority over vital organ transplants and that all the legal requirements had been met before the operation.

"This is an operation that can be carried out again," Dubernard said. "This is a great hope for all people whose cases are disfigured by accidents or burns."

- REUTERS