Tuesday, the Cleveland Clinic announced that surgeons had performed the first face transplant in the United States, the team led by Maria Siemionow having replaced approximately 80 percent of a disfigured woman’s face.

The surgeons performed the procedure within the previous two weeks, by using the face of a deceased female donor, neither of the two women’s names having been made public.

Eileen Sheil, a spokeswoman for the Clinic informed that both their identities would remain undisclosed.

Moreover, she added that the transplant conducted in the United States had been more extensive than the other three that had been performed until the date in France and China, since surgeons had managed an almost total face replacement.

Three years ago, the first face transplant was performed in France, the patient having been a woman who had been maimed by her dog, while the second was performed on a European man who suffered from a genetic condition which resulted in disfiguring him.

The third surgical procedure of the like involved a Chinese farmer who had been attacked by a bear.

The first face transplant patient, Isabelle Dinoire, who lost her lips, cheeks, chin and most of her nose when her dog attacked her, has now regained normal skin sensation and is able to control her facial muscles. At the time of the surgery, surgeons used a face from a 46-year-old brain-dead donor, which they attached to Dinoire’s face during a 15 hours long procedure.

Currently, several other hospitals throughout the nation are taking into account the possibility of performing face transplants in the future.