French transplant surgeon Dr. Laurent Lantieri and his colleagues have written a report on face transplantation, published in Friday's issue of the British medical journal Lancet, which reveals that face transplants are more feasible than previously thought, although they still pose significant technical problems and complications are more common than with most transplants.

In March, it was announced that Brigham and Women’s Hospital was given permission by the New England Organ Bank to be the first facility in the United States to perform partial face transplants on eligible patients whose faces have been disfigured. To be eligible, recipients will have to be kidney transplant patients who have suffered facial burns, trauma, or skin cancer that has left them with severe facial disfigurement.

On November 27, 2005, 38-year-old Isabelle Dinoire was the first person to ever undergo a face transplant intervention, after being severely attacked by her dog. The consequences of the attack were the amputation of her distal nose, her upper and lower lips, the entire chin and parts of her right and left cheeks. The donor was a brain-dead 46-year-old woman with the same blood group (O+) and five compatible HLA antigens.

The intervention was not only controversial and risky, but also required multiple approvals from the Local Protection of Persons Committee, the French Agency for Health Safety and the French Biomedicine Agency. The surgeon responsible for the face transplant was Jean-Michel Dubernard, who admitted that not only was the intervention a difficult one, but the recovery process was even more complicated.

Subsequently, a 30-year-old Chinese man who had part of his face torn off in a bear attack in October 2004 underwent transplantation in April 2006 that included connection of arteries and veins, along with repair of the nose, lip, sinuses and other damaged facial structures.

Another case that made headlines was that of a 29-year-old male patient in France who suffered from a disfiguring facial tumor called a neurofibroma. He received transplantation surgery in January 2007 and was able to work normally 13 months after the transplant.

However, all three cases confronted with recurring episodes of rejection. Patients do not look like their donors, but as they looked before disfigurement, as the transplanted face is fitted on the person's existing framework which gives their distinct figure.