The Lancet journal reported operations involving a bear attack victim in China, and a French patient with a severely disfiguring tumor. The Chinese patient was given not just the lip, nose, skin and muscle from a donor, but even some facial bone.
According to an article authored by Chinese surgeons from the Institute of Plastic Surgery, the 30-year-old Chinese man who received a transplant after a bear attack experienced some complications but was doing well two years after his surgery.
The patient took four different drugs to help his immune system and reduce the chances of tissue rejection. Other drugs were also used to prevent infection.
The second study concerned a 29-year-old man disfigured by a neurofibroma, a massive tumor growing on his facial nerves. The man underwent a transplant in Paris in January 2007, where the tumor removal was timed to coincide with a face transplant.
According to the study, although two rejections occurred, both episodes were managed with drugs. A year later, doctors declared the operation a success and the man has reportedly began full-time work as an accounting agent.
Frenchwoman Isabel Dinoire became the world's first face transplant patient in 2005 after being mauled by a pet dog. She described the results of the operation as successful.
