18.12.08
US doctors hail near-total face transplant
- Breakthroughs, Importance of Science, Medicine -
By Jennifer Gonzalez
Agence France-Presse
CLEVELAND — Doctors hailed a groundbreaking transplant to replace 80 percent of a woman’s face, saying Wednesday it is a means for the severely disfigured to “face the world” without humiliation.
It was the world’s first near-total facial transplant and the fourth known facial transplant to have been successfully performed to date.
“We need the face to face the world,” said lead surgeon and researcher Maria Siemionow of the Cleveland Clinic.
