Full Face Transplant Completed

Judging from the results it isn't quite what the patient had hoped for.

A SPANISH hospital said today it performed the world's first complete face transplant in March on a man who could not swallow, breath or talk normally following an accident five years ago.

While 11 other face transplants have been carried out around the world previously, Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron hospital said they involved only part of the patient's face.

During the 22-hour-long operation, the unidentified young man received new facial muscles, skin, nose, lips, jaw, teeth, palate and cheekbones, the leader of the medical team that carried out the procedure, Joan Pere Barret, said.

A team of 30 experts carried out the transplant on March 20 and care was taken to ensure that the patient's new face was created in the likeness of the face he had before the unspecified accident and did not resemble that of the anonymous donor.