Hong Zhijian, vice director of the Department of Burn and Plastic Surgery of General Hospital of Nanjing Military Command and leader of the research group of facial complex tissue allotransplant, revealed that the hospital is selecting the first volunteer to undergo a face transplant and has preliminarily affirmed to exempt the 200,000 yuan (US$24,700) charges for the operation. At present, four applicants have passed the first round of selection.
In 2003, the hospital took the initiative in the world to perform a scalp-face-auricle transplant operation. Nevertheless, face transplant is much more difficult than scalp transplant, and the Nanjing hospital must be very careful in selecting the first patient to undergo such an operation. As for the four applicants who have passed the first round of selection of the hospital, their faces have almost been completely destroyed without the lineament of an ordinary person and cannot expect a good result through conventional treatment.
Regarding the world's first face transplant operation performed by France, Hong remarked that the procedures will be basically the same as the facial complex tissue allotransplant the research group is working on. The hospital should find a patient suitable to undergo the operation in the first place, then select suitable donators that match the patient's facial features, and finally perform the operation. The hospital's facial complex tissue allotransplant operation involves a larger area than the operation performed by France, but the latter was conducted around the nose and the mouth, which is the most difficult part of face transplant.
Hong said that an ideal patient to undergo the first face transplant operation should have a face that is completely destroyed on the forehead, in the cheeks, around the eyes, on the nose and mouth, which makes him keep himself away from people. The operation aims to give the patient a new face that will not horrify himself or anyone else. According to Hong, after the operation the patient will go through three stages of recovery. The first step is to make the grafts take and the wounds cicatrize. The second stage is a satisfactory static countenance. On top of all is to enable the patient to make natural and rich facial expressions.
(China News Service December 8, 2005)
