Face Off - Spanish Hospital Claims First Full Face Transplant

[resolve]

Odd how this fits so well in Nicolas Cage month :P.

A Spanish hospital used a 30 member medical staff in a 24 hour procedure to graft a new face onto a man who lost his in a tragic accident...

LINK: http://news.yahoo.com/video/world-15749633/19292751

I think this is really really neat. It just seems such a merciful operation, to give someone a new face after they lost theirs in an accident; in a sense restoring their dignity and self esteem.

Some people in the comments of the video left some interesting responses though about how greedy plastic surgeons could use these techniques to really mess with people's appearances so they all look like "movie stars". I just don't see it happening that way. What do you guys think about the implications of such a procedure becoming more commonplace?

I think things like this can do so much more good than harm.

[EuropIan]

Did a French medical team do almost the same for awoman whose face was eaten by her dog?

[resolve]

Yeah, it's mentioned in the video and they show that woman. They don't show the man that they recently did surgery on but they compare him to her in saying "he doesn't look like a donor recipient".

[Ajamil]

If this is claiming the first face transplant, then either they're exaggerating, or qualifying by saying the woman was a partial transplant rather than full facial (hee, facial). I also remember during the noise around the first one that what your face looks like is more determined by bone structure than the skin, so you'd probably just get the same looking face with slightly different looking skin.

Oh I see, they did give him new bones as well. Very cool.

This of course brings to mind a hilarious "blackface" practical joke you could pull for a few measly tens of thousands.

[Dr. Socially Liberal Fiscally Conservative Vermin]

This is an amazing breakthough in microvascular surgery. Truely outstanding no pictures yet though, so we dont really know how it turned out.

I did hear that the French woman wasnt particularly happy with the out come of her partial facial.

[Vieux Normand]

KKKonfuschia say, "He who forgets to take anti-rejection drug will lose face--and maybe trample face underfoot."

[Ajamil]

Considering she had no lips before (first time I saw that, congrats on the media for keeping that under for so long), I think she should be grateful. Although she does seem to have a permanent slack-jawed quizzically angry expression. Perhaps her nerves aren't working right.

[EuropIan]

What are you talking about? The story about Isabelle Dinoire made the rounds back in 2005 when it was relevant.

[Ajamil]

The story yes, the pic of her with no lips, not so much.

[EuropIan]

erm.. I distinctly remembered that pic as well.