الثلاثاء، 17 نوفمبر 2015

Face Transplants Move Forward with Most Extensive Operation Yet - Rawan For Media Artistic and Production

Face Transplants Move Forward with Most Extensive Operation Yet - Rawan For Media Artistic and Production



A
41-year-old man who suffered extensive facial burns in 2001 while
working as a volunteer firefighter now has a new face. The man recently
underwent the most extensive facial transplant done to date, said the
doctors who treated him.

Surgeons
at New York University Langone Medical Center operated for 26 hours in
August 2015. The team included over 100 individuals, said Dr. Robert
Grossman, the dean and CEO of the medical center, speaking at press
conference today (Nov. 16).

This surgery is historic, said Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, a plastic surgeon at the center, who led the operation.

"The
amount of tissue that was transplanted [in this surgery] had not been
transplanted before," Rodriguez said. He noted that he had only
performed one facial transplant procedure prior to this surgery (that
earlier operation was the first to successfully transplant bone and
teeth).

Prior
to this surgery, Rodriguez told the patient, Patrick Hardison, that the
surgery had a 50/50 chance of success, Rodriguez said.

After
his accident, Hardison had no normal tissue in his face, scalp,
eyelids, nose or lips, Rodriguez said. Hardison had also lost his ears,
the doctor said. Hardison wore a baseball cap, sunglasses and prosthetic
ears to conceal his appearance, and because of significant scarring on
his face, he experienced enormous pain when making facial expressions
and chewing.

The surgeons planned out the extensive surgery down to the minute, Rodriguez said.

The
operation began on the morning of Aug. 12, Rodriguez said. Two teams
began working simultaneously, one team working to remove the donor face,
and the other to prepare Hardison to receive the transplant.

Removing
the donor face took 12 hours, Rodriguez said. The donor's entire scalp,
face and eyelids were removed, as well as some bones in the face and
chin, which would help provide facial definition, Rodriguez said. In
addition, the doctors identified important blood vessels and nerves that
would need to be preserved and re-attached when the face was
transplanted, he said.
The surgeons paid special attention to the functional structures of the eyelids, he added.

The
surgery to prepare Hardison to receive the transplant took 8 hours,
during which time the team removed all of the scar tissue of Hardison's
face, scalp, eyelids and ears, Rodriguez said. It was important to
remove all of the man's scars and get down to healthy tissue, Rodriguez
said.

The
surgeons also removed some of the bones from Hardison's face, because
bones from the donor's face would be brought in to replace them,
Rodriguez said.

On
the morning of Aug. 15, the two surgical teams came together for 10
hours of surgery, Rodriguez said. They attached the bones in the chin,
followed by the bones in the middle of the face, he said. The surgeons
then re-attached the blood vessels, so that new blood could flow to the
transplant, he said. Next, the surgeons focused on the eyelids, followed
by the lining of the nose and mouth, before completing the surgery, he
said.

"From
an overall standpoint, [Hardison is] doing great," Rodriguez said. His
recovery is going well and he has had no issues with tissue rejection, a
major concern for transplant patients, Rodriguez said.

Hardison
was able to move his eyelids several days after the surgery, and began
to grow hair within about one month, Rodriguez said.

The
doctors felt very positive when Hardison's eyelids starting moving,
Rodriguez said. This was the primary purpose of this face transplant, he
said.

We
now know that we can transplant eyelids, Rodriguez said. This provides
great hope for individuals who have lost their eyelids but still have
their vision, he said.

Shortly
after the surgery, he said, "You could see that [Hardison] was
concerned to look in the mirror. Now that he has a new face, he's happy
with it," Rodriguez said. "It's his face, as he says it," Rodriguez
added.

Hardison
still faces many challenges, both physical and psychological, to
overcome after his surgery. But Rodriguez told of one important moment,
when he took Hardison to Macy's to buy new clothes —Hardison became
emotional when he realized that no one was staring at him, Rodriguez
said.


By LIVESCIENCE, 15 hours 51 minutes ago

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