A 27-year-old man whose face was disfigured by a genetic disorder has received the world's third partial face plant and is doing well, French doctors said Tuesday. The man, who suffers from a lesion-causing illness called neurofibromatosis, was given a new nose, mouth and chin and had portions of his cheeks replaced.

The 15-hour operation was the second partial face transplant that has been conducted in France, surgeons said. Dr. Laurent Lantieri performed the operation at Henri-Mondor hospital in the Paris suburb of Creteil.

According to AP, Lantieri said at Paris news conference that the patient was "doing well from a surgical point of view" but they still "have to wait many months for the results."

The doctors said neurofibromatosis causes tumors to grow on nerve tissue throughout the body. It resembles the disorder Joseph Merrick, better known in popular culture as "The Elephant Man," suffered from.

The first partial face transplant took place in France in March of 2005 on a woman who had been wounded by a severe dog bite. The second person to receive a face transplant was a Chinese man who had been attacked by a bear. That operation took place in April of 2006.