Two studies on cases of face transplant were published in the British medical journal The Lancet. The reported operations involve a bear attack victim in China, and a French patient with a massive facial tumor who are now doing fine and have a normal life.

The first case is about farmer Li Guoxing of Yunnan's Lanping County who was attacked by a bear in October 2004 causing him major tissue and bone damage on the right side of his face. The farmer caught the bear eating one of his sheep and attacked him with a stick leading to the bear disfiguring his face.

Li Guoxing, 30, lost his job because of his appearance. Therefore the US-based non-governmental organization The Nature Conservancy which is interested in bear protection helped him find a suitable hospital to get an operation. He had it 18 months later at Xijing Hospital and Fourth Military Medical University in the north Chinese city of Xi'an, in April 2006. He received an upper lip, nose, skin, muscle and even some facial bone from a 25-year-old donor who had died in a traffic accident. Professor Shuzhong Guo was head of the surgery team. No post operator infections occurred, but the patient suffered three acute rejection episodes and high blood sugar. Both were taken care of with medication.

But still the world’s first face transplant took place in France in 2005. Isabel Dinoire was operated because she had been attacked by her pet dog. She successfully overcame two episodes of rejection.

Another spectacular success involved a 29-year-old man who suffered from von Recklinghausen disease, an illness that deforms the face. He received a new nose, mouth and chin in a 2007 operation.