1st Face Transplant Patient Doing Well

French doctors report "satisfactory" results from
the first human face transplant, done in 2005 on a French woman whose face had
been mangled by dog bites.

The woman (whose name her doctors don't divulge) received a partial face
transplant covering most of her face, except her forehead, in November 2005,
when she was 38 years old.

Five
days after surgery , the woman was reportedly talking.

Six months later, heat and cold sensation was normal.

Nearly
eight months later , she could smile.

Today, the woman has regained some -- but not all -- of her facial sensation
and movement. She can use her face to express emotions such as joy or
sadness.

The woman's immune system has twice rejected the donated facial tissue, and
she continues to take drugs to prevent further bouts
of tissue rejection. She's also gotten physical therapy.

The woman hasn't undergone formal psychological tests since her surgery. But
"she says she is not afraid of walking in the street or meeting people at a
party, and she is very satisfied with the aesthetic and functional
results," write the doctors.

They included Jean-Michel Dubernard, MD, PhD, of the Hopital Edouard Herriot
in Lyon, France.

Dubernard's team notes that since 2005, two other face transplants have been performed
-- one in China in 2006 and one in France this year -- but those cases haven't
been published yet.

Meanwhile, Dubernard and colleagues detail the first patient's results in
tomorrow's edition of The New England Journal of Medicine.

By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang
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