Only three partial face transplants have been performed in the world, two in France and one in China. Recently, the surgeons from Cleveland Clinic have also conducted a partial face transplant, and though no further details were provided, it is known that the patient is a woman.

Face transplants consist of transplanting tissue from one person to another, and the entire operation is very tricky as the organism has the tendency to reject foreign tissue. The surgeons from Cleveland Clinic have announced that they will give more information in a special conference which will be held on Wednesday.

Face transplants pose a number of problems, from which the most important is that the patient must use special drugs for the rest of his life. These drugs will help the patient’s body not reject the foreign tissue that was transplanted. The problem is that if at any point the drugs fail to do their jobs, doctors can do very little to help that person out.

 Another issue is concerned with ethics, as a face transplant can have severe psychological effects. A person should be carefully examined before and only if it turns out that the patient is strong enough to deal with a new face looking back from the mirror, doctors should proceed with the operation.

Medicine is evolving quite rapidly and with the new technologies doctors can perform things that were only dreamt of in the past. Face transplants were once considered impossible and yet, today, these surgeries take place, and even though they can be very risky, if all the problems are resolved the benefits are worth it.