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Smiling a Joy for Face Transplant Patients

Isabelle Dinoire, Li Guoxing, and an unnamed Frenchman all share the miracle of a smile after their faces were severely damaged by trauma and disease.  Their new smiles are the result of ground-breaking face transplants and, a couple of years after surgery for each of them, the results of their surgeries are said to be highly successful from both physical and psychological perspectives.

Dinoire was the first person ever to get a face transplant, surgery undertaken in Paris in 2005 after she was mauled by a dog.

Li, a 30-year-old farmer from China, was severely damaged by a bear when he was looking for a lost sheep in 2004.  In his surgery, arteries and veins were reconnected and his lip, nose, and sinuses were repaired.

The 29-year-old unnamed Frenchman had face transplant surgery in January 2007 after a disfiguring facial tumor was removed.  The tumor, called a neurofibroma, is the result of a genetic disorder and was described as being hideous and massive enough to hinder the man’s ability to speak and eat, leaving him isolated socially.  Now, however, he works full time and is pleased to think of himself as a fully integrated member of society.

Both Li and the Frenchman experienced severe and repeated cases of immune system rejection of the transplanted tissue but each bout was controlled with steroids and other drugs.  Now, however, both men feel sensation and have control over motor function of the transplanted tissue.

Li’s surgical team at the Institute of Plastic Surgery at the Xijing Hospital, Xian, China, was led by Shuzhong Guo.  Laurent Lantieri led the French surgical team at the Henri Mondor Hospital in Creteil.  The medical journal, The Lancet, has published accounts of both transplants.

Lantieri writes that face transplant surgery is both feasible and effective when specific disfigurements are present but long-term follow-up is welcome, as it will reveal any risks associated with tissue rejection and life expectancy.  Likely candidates for the procedure include people disfigured by burns and other traumatic events such as automobile accidents.  Patients suffering from tumors, birth defects, and other malformations may benefit from the surgery as well.

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