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Biotech Medicine Science

Full Facial Transplant Is One Step Closer 113

Posted by timothy from the get-in-line-for-jolie-lips dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "A Chinese medical team led by Shuzhong Guo of the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi'an has successfully completed the first transplant to include facial bone in a transplant on a man whose face was slashed by a bear. The Chinese graft included muscles, nerves, blood vessels, cartilage and skin and included an intact salivary gland, another first. Two years after the procedure, the man can eat, drink and speak, thanks to the gradual fusing of transplanted nerves and muscles with what remained of the patient's own. This transplant together with the another ground breaking transplant last year by French doctors that removed a huge tumor that had completely infiltrated and disfigured their patient's face, now sets the stage for a full facial transplant."
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Full Facial Transplant Is One Step Closer More

Full Facial Transplant Is One Step Closer

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  • saw a doco on this (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 23, 2008 @08:03PM (#24722685)
    Saw a pretty good documentary on this about 10 years ago. Ah, here [imdb.com] it is.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Silent Node ( 54344 )

      This is the next step in disguising the true age of Chinese gymnasts. My prediction: In London, the entire women's team will sport fu manchu mustaches.

  • Additional information (Score:5, Funny)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Saturday August 23, 2008 @08:15PM (#24722745)

    The article doesn't mention this; but John Woo was a technical consultant for the Chinese surgical team.

  • You have to admire the Chinese... (Score:5, Funny)

    by bigtallmofo ( 695287 ) * on Saturday August 23, 2008 @08:16PM (#24722751)
    A Chinese medical team...has successfully completed the first facial transplant

    They will do ANYTHING to ensure that their underage gymnasts can compete in the Olympics.

    • London 2012 (Score:1, Offtopic)

      by bigtallmofo ( 695287 ) *
      This is one of the 12 year olds that is planning to compete in London 2012... Nobody will suspect a thing!

      Chinese Olympic Gymnast [chinasnippets.com]

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Yeah, and no more lip-synching needed when the little girl singer's not cute enough -- they'll just swap the faces!

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I wonder which Falun Gong member the face came from?

  • Face/Off (Score:1, Redundant)

    by cory_p82 ( 751921 )
    Awesome! Science will soon catch up with Hollywood [imdb.com]! What's next? Will John Travolta actually get to have wings added on [imdb.com]?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by maxume ( 22995 )

      He is going to get a little taller [imdb.com].

  • Chinese transplant is actually from 2004 (Score:4, Funny)

    by davidwr ( 791652 ) on Saturday August 23, 2008 @08:20PM (#24722783) Homepage Journal

    From the article:

    The Chinese team, led by Shuzhong Guo of the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi'an, is the first to include facial bone in a face transplant, carried out on 13 April 2006.

    The correct version should read:

    The Chinese team, led by Shuzhong Guo of the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi'an, is the first to include facial bone in a face transplant, carried out on 13 April 2004.

    • The patient was attacked in 2004. The transplant didn't take place until 2006. The corrected version should be:
      >The Chinese team led by Shuzhong Guo of the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi'an, is the first to include facial bone in a face transplant, carried out 13 April 2006.

    • I appreciate the informative, but I was trying to be funny.

      Hint for the humor-impaired: Chinese Gymnasts.

  • May I be first in line for a brain transplant?

    • May I be first in line for a brain transplant?

      This is the first intelligent thing I've heard you say, Pinky.

  • So what happens in case of rejection? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I can't imagine what it would feel like to get a normal life again after an accident like that, only to have your face literally start falling off ten years later because the body rejected the tissue.

  • Donors (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Artista42 ( 1326699 ) on Saturday August 23, 2008 @08:26PM (#24722823)

    I wonder how many people would actually be willing to donate their face. It's one thing to donate blood or donate an organ when you die, but to donate part of or the entirety of what makes you most visibly recognizable? Even though the donor would be dead, the family might have issues with disfiguring the corpse.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by fishbowl ( 7759 )

      >the family might have issues with disfiguring the corpse.

      How about spelling this out, early and often:
      The members of the family that disrespect the wishes of the decedent, don't get a share of the estate.

    • Re:Donors (Score:4, Funny)

      by Cylix ( 55374 ) on Saturday August 23, 2008 @08:35PM (#24722897) Homepage Journal

      Take it all after I croak!

      When I finally fall over dead I really won't need anything in my body. It would be nice to know that they might do someone else some good once I'm gone.

      In fact, if someone does decide to done my face and do a kuku dance... they should date my girlfriend.

      Talk about easing the transition!

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by fyoder ( 857358 ) *

        Take it all after I croak!

        Hear, hear! Take what you want, then let beetles deflesh my bones, string them together into a skeleton, and put me up for sale on ebay! I've always wanted to be a part of the goth scene, but never had the energy, too lazy even for emo. But as a skeleton it would take no energy, and nobody would be more goth, nobody paler!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by maxume ( 22995 )

      That you look a lot like your skull mitigates the recognizable issues quite a bit.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by SpinyNorman ( 33776 )

      The face is just a wrapper - a receipient wouldn't have the same bone structure, behavior/expressions (raised eyebrows, winks, scowls), eyes, ways of moving mouth and lips (speech, etc) as the donor.

      Remember also that the police do facial reconstruction from bare skulls and get recognisable results - the bone structure is a VERY large part of what makes you look like you do.

      • "A Chinese medical team led by Shuzhong Guo of the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi'an has successfully completed the first transplant to include facial bone"

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Repossessed ( 1117929 )

      Do Chinese convicts that are executed get a say about being donors?

    • They'll just probably roll one of these [usatoday.com] up to the hospital parking lot and volunteer somebody from the passers by if they don't have one already processed.

    • Wonder how long after this becomes a relatively safe operation it will be before the first rich but ageing or ugly woman buy the face of a poor but beautiful young woman...

      Capitalism über alles.

    • Issues?
      I'll be dead. Take all you can, especially if it helps other people - I won't need it anymore. Use the remains to teach students at the university, and burn the rest.

      Seriously, people who claim their bodies to be holy and untouchable after death are more than just a bit nuts. Would you prefere your body parts to remain useful, or would you rather feed maggots with them?

      • Some people are hindered from donating organs by their religion, and a lot of religions have restrictions on it. I'm not saying I personally I agree with the people who are hesitant to donate their organs, I'm saying that they are out there.

  • How about the voice? Can they duplicate the vocal chords too?

    • The voice is a lot more complicated. It comes not just from the vocal chords, but also the shape of the mouth, the length/shape of the neck and the shape of the chest.

  • Now all I need is artificial intelligence and plastic personality to go.

  • More pictures at the BBC (Score:5, Informative)

    by Valacosa ( 863657 ) on Saturday August 23, 2008 @08:36PM (#24722907)

    I was reading about this story this morning. The BBC has more pictures here [bbc.co.uk].

    What I found funny is that the caption for the first photo warns, "SOME MAY FIND THE FOLLOWING IMAGES DISTURBING." Personally, I found the first photo - the photo to which that warning is attached - the most disturbing. Yes, more disturbing than the tumor-face.

    There's also a photo in there which reminded me of Two-face from The Dark Knight, but it's too blurry to be scary.

    • Looking at the first photo in the link, I keep looking at his right eye, it doesn't look right, as though the position of the skin is off. Based on the fourth photo, his skin around his eye was repaired and not from the donor. But it's made me think this could be a problem for face transplants, when the position of the skin around the eyes of the donor doesn't match the recipient's.

      While full face transplants in the future are going to raise a lot of interest and intrigue, I think they are only going to be

  • Face-off (Score:3, Funny)

    by waveformwafflehouse ( 1221950 ) on Saturday August 23, 2008 @08:39PM (#24722927) Homepage
    So I suppose now he can grin and bear it.
    In your face, bear!
    Bear's response: Ooooooh, Face!
    bear/
    Think he picked out the new one with FaceBook?
    Boy, is his face Red.
    Now he'll have to face the truth like he's never faced it before.

  • Fun (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 23, 2008 @08:42PM (#24722949)

    Best thing about a face transplant? Turning up at the donors funeral and making ghost noises.

    • I hate to be a buzz-kill about your other-wise hilarious joke, but... Due to the agonizing pain you'd be in because you just had muscle and skin tissue grafted onto your face, you would most likely be heavily sedated for days and hospitalized even longer. Thus, missing the donor's wake and funeral.
      • If your going to insist on being a big ol joke spoiler, you may as well point out that because the bone structure underneath is different, the face won't look the same when it's stuck in another person.
  • Tissues can be generated without removing them from a corpse. Yes the voice box can be changed. Entire voice boxes can be built from existing tissue with lasers. Stem cell research has evolved to replace organs. Human neural cells have been integrated in an animal brain. Gene sequences can be changed and grown. New genes can be incorporated in living cells. This is not the only face transplant and in fact I was assisting a doctor in ENT when she rebuilt the lower half of a face in 1975. She also built voice

  • Meh, porn has been doing (Score:4, Funny)

    by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Saturday August 23, 2008 @09:08PM (#24723117) Homepage Journal
    full facials for years....oh wait, whats that, "full facial transplants", nevermind.

    • full facials for years....oh wait, whats that, "full facial transplants", nevermind.

      I don't know why you're stopping. You're right both ways!

  • First there were organ thefts [about.com]. Now we have face transplants.

    Welcome to identity theft, modern style.

  • I was going to submit this. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by lantastik ( 877247 ) on Saturday August 23, 2008 @10:23PM (#24723477)

    I didn't because I would have felt like a hypocrite. That is probably not the right word, but when I first saw the pictures, I was all like W.T.F?!? I thought the "after" picture was the before picture until I started scrolling though a little bit (I saw this article on a different site that had more photos).

    The other site also had the photos featured from this article:
    http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5il4qlI62UWuVdQ-az7K0N7OvGEoQD92N0TFO1 [google.com]

    Again, it was a total W.T.F. moment for me. No, not a Worse Than Failure® moment, but you know what I mean. I got a little introspective after that and decided to leave it alone. Like, what if I saw that guy on the street, would I gasp in horror? Would I stare in amazement? I felt like my submitting it would just be a point and stare opportunity. Please tell me I am not the only one that had this thought.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Raenex ( 947668 )

      Like, what if I saw that guy on the street, would I gasp in horror?

      This face transplant story is a complete Shop of Horrors. I was morbidly reading through the stories and the pictures, and got extremely queasy and had to lie down after one of the stories. It was about a woman who woke up to find that her dog had eaten her nose and lips. She didn't realize it at first until she tried to smoke a cigarette.

      All part of God's plan, of course.

  • "One step closer"? From what I read, Pascal Coler's (the neurofibromatosis guy) *was* a full facial transplant.

  • This quote by the lead doctor, Shuzhong Guo, was recorded by our reporter.

    I want to take his face.... off!

  • It's easier for Asians though (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 23, 2008 @11:35PM (#24723799)

    because they all look alike

    • some have tentacles!
  • Hey Earl watch this .. a panda bear is going to take this bamboo shoot right out of my mouth.......
  • My quest to look like David Hasselhoff is nearing fruition!

  • Ok, so now we can transplant faces but tell me, Doctor, can we transplant the heart of a good movie into a Travolta vehicle?

  • As if 16 year olds in CA getting breast implants because of body image wasn't enough,

    ---

    now they can go face shopping on Rodeo Drive. It puts a whole new spin to online shopping in facebook.

  • Now I can go bear-wrestle like I've always wanted to!
  • Looks to me like most of the women on the chinese team look like they're fresh out of the local sex-change clinic... remember the swimming team from a few years back?
    • Well, a lot of people fresh out of local sex-change clinic *do* look like the women on the CHinese team. ANd then again, some of them you'd never pick up on. If you ever sleep with any of them it will make you as gh3y as Elton John. I'd like you to think about that.

  • As a Slashdot geek, I can only hope...

  • Seriously, defy your principles and LOOK at the article, there is a picture of the guy after transplant.

    How anyone could call a horribly disfigured result 'successful' in a cosmetic procedure is beyond me.

  • Seriously, the few times i've trusted photo links by msn and it ends up being a bear attack it's always the face.

  • Woohoo! Now they can take the face off the pretty young girl and put it on the ugly little girl that can sing. NO MORE LIP SYNCING!!

  • All your face are belong to us!

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