Paris  - A team of French surgeons has performed the first- ever successful simultaneous transplant of a person's face and hands, French media reported Tuesday.

The recipient, a 30-year-old man, was severely burned in an accident in 2004. He suffered profound third-degree burns on his face and had to have all his fingers amputated.

The procedure was carried out at Henry-Mondor Hospital in the Paris suburb of Creteil and involved a staff of 40 working continuously for 30 hours. The team was led by doctors Laurent Lantieri, Christian Dumontier and Jean-Paul Meningaud.

The operation, which took place over the weekend of April 4-5, comprised a transplant of the entire face above the lips, including the scalp.

It also included transplanting all four upper and lower eyelids, which was also unprecedented, the office of the Paris Public Hospital Assistance said.

The doctors said that this part of the procedure was particularly difficult because the nerves in the eyelids are very delicate. Correctly connecting the tear ducts is also a difficult procedure, they said.

France-Info radio reported on Tuesday that the patient remained in an artificial coma and would be gradually revived over a period of about two weeks.

Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin congratulated the surgeons and praised the courage of the patient, who had to wait one year before a suitable donor was found.

The operation was the sixth-ever face transplant carried out, and the fourth in France; the first face transplant was carried out in Amiens in 2005. The first-ever hand transplant also took place in a French hospital, in Lyon in 1998.