simone
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Joined: 23 Jul 2005
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 Posted: 09/19/05 - 11:41 Post subject: US plans first face transplant |
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At the moment, surgeons are seeking volunteers for the first face transplant that is about to take place real soon. Such procedures have already been carries out on dead bodies but the time has come for people to receive their new faces. There are 50% chances that the procedure will work and there are high concerns on safety and ethical issues.
The most important issues regarding the whole procedure and post op adaptation are whether an individual and their loved ones would adapt psychologically to a completely new face, what the person would look like after a face transplant and if a person will manage powerful anti-rejection drug given to them prior to surgery.
The procedure involves taking skin and underlying tissues from a dead donor and placing them on the living recipient. The new face would neither resemble the donor nor the recipient pre-look. The face should take on more of the characteristics of the skeleton of the recipient than the soft tissues of the donor.
Although the face transplant procedures could help people whose faces have been destroyed by accidents or disease to restore their quality of life, the surgeons were not ready for this major step until it was safe to do so. They were waiting for a better control of the possible complications in order to proceed with human facial transplantation.
The Cleveland Clinic is the one who has been approved to go ahead with the operation. There are five men and seven women as potential candidates for the 8-10 hour operation.
A candidate has to be really disfigured, not just have a little scar. A new face will arrive from a dead donor and it will match the tissue type, age, sex and skin colour. |
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