Surgeons Seek Approval for Face Transplant

Published February 22, 2010 by Dr. Mark Mandell-Brown

Maybe you remember the near-total face transplant performed two years ago at the Cleveland Clinic. Surgeons and many other physicians spent 22 hours restoring a woman’s face after she had suffered severe facial trauma years before.

Now doctors and plastic surgeons at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center are seeking approval to perform a similar operation. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, doctors at the UPMC have experience performing hand transplants — procedures that require highly advanced surgery techniques that reconnect tissues, veins and blood vessels – but a face transplant involves more complex aesthetic goals and may require donation of organs that are very difficult to procure.

• Read more at the Pittsburgh Tribune Review