Current concepts and future challenges in facial transplantation

Clin Plast Surg. 2009 Jul;36(3):507-21. doi: 10.1016/j.cps.2009.02.006.

Abstract

Facial allotransplantation has become a surgical reality. The first successful segmental human face transplants have demonstrated that facial allografts are reliable, their rejection can be prevented by low-dose immunosuppression, and their neurologic recovery enables oral and expressive functions of the face to be restored. Clinical facts have shown that the risk-benefit balance is acceptable in the medium term, that at the neurocognitive level the allograft is reintegrated in the body scheme of the recipient, and that it does not engender a donor identity transfer. This article presents a classification of facial allografts and discusses the technical, immunologic, and ethical challenges that lie ahead.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Cost-Benefit Analysis
  • Face / anatomy & histology*
  • Facial Transplantation / economics
  • Facial Transplantation / ethics
  • Facial Transplantation / methods*
  • Facial Transplantation / trends
  • Forecasting
  • Graft Rejection
  • Graft Survival
  • Humans
  • Recovery of Function
  • Transplantation, Homologous / immunology