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UK face transplant gets go-ahead

The UK Face Transplantation team headed by Peter Butler will be examining potential recipients and will draw up a short list of patients in the coming months.

"We have been given permission to go ahead with a series of four transplants," hospital spokesman, Neil Huband, said.

Surgeons in France performed the world's first partial face transplant in a 15-hour operation last year on Isabelle Dinoire who received a new nose, lips and chin after being mauled by her dog.

The pioneering surgery by Professor Bernard Devauchelle and his team at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Amiens in northern France sparked an ethical debate and raised questions about the psychological impact of the surgery on both the recipient and the donor's family.

The Research Ethics Committee of the Royal Free Hospital in London gave the go-ahead to Butler and his team after they provided information and clarification on several points.

At the end of last year, the team received permission from the committee to recruit and evaluate potential patients for the transplants.

"The people we have already seen will be examined in detail and others will also be examined. Within the next year or so we will draw up a short list," Huband added.

Although the microsurgery techniques needed for a full transplant are well established, little is known about the psychological impact and the long-term risk of the drugs the patient will need to take to avoid rejection of the new face.

More than 400,000 men, women and children in Britain have a facial disfigurement and 250,000 are severely disfigured, according to the Face Trust, a charity which has been set up to fund research for surgical reconstruction and facial transplantation.

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