Doctors at a US clinic will start interviewing potential recipients for the world's first face transplant in the next few weeks, after winning approval from the clinic's internal review board.
The medical team at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio is led by Maria Siemionow, a 55-year-old surgeon who has spent years conducting research into face transplants, including experiments on animals and human cadavers.
"You want to choose patients who are really disfigured, not someone who has a little scar," she told Associated Press.
The procedure is intended to help patients whose faces are disfigured because of an accident or genetic fault. Many patients spend years enduring painful reconstructive surgery. It is a process that has been labelled "life by 1,000 cuts".
Proponents of face transplants argue that the procedure could remove the need for years of operations by applying a new sheet of skin in one operation. While the capability to perform face transplants has existed for years, nobody has attempted it. Teams of surgeons in Britain, France and the US have previously announced that they are close to performing face transplants, but concerns over the ethical implications of the procedure have halted or delayed their plans.
Although the Cleveland Clinic team has won approval from an internal review board, critics say an independent review board should determine whether the procedure can go ahead.
More....http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1573300,00.html
The medical team at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio is led by Maria Siemionow, a 55-year-old surgeon who has spent years conducting research into face transplants, including experiments on animals and human cadavers.
"You want to choose patients who are really disfigured, not someone who has a little scar," she told Associated Press.
The procedure is intended to help patients whose faces are disfigured because of an accident or genetic fault. Many patients spend years enduring painful reconstructive surgery. It is a process that has been labelled "life by 1,000 cuts".
Proponents of face transplants argue that the procedure could remove the need for years of operations by applying a new sheet of skin in one operation. While the capability to perform face transplants has existed for years, nobody has attempted it. Teams of surgeons in Britain, France and the US have previously announced that they are close to performing face transplants, but concerns over the ethical implications of the procedure have halted or delayed their plans.
Although the Cleveland Clinic team has won approval from an internal review board, critics say an independent review board should determine whether the procedure can go ahead.
More....http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1573300,00.html