Two studies published in the journal The Lancet suggest that face transplants are no longer oddities and people with severe facial disfigurement should consider them more often.

The studies were based on two surgeries undergone by two men, a Chinese man after a bear tore off part of his face and a French-Caribbean man disfigured by neurofibroma (a massive tumor growing on his facial nerves). Both surgeries proved to be successful.

Shuzhong Guo of the Institute of Plastic Surgery, Xijing Hospital and Fourth Military Medical University in Xi'an, lead author of one of the studies, and colleagues said the 30-year-old Chinese man was doing well two years after his surgery.

The man was attacked by a bear in October 2004 and received a face transplant in April 2006 during which doctors reconstructed his veins and arteries, his nose, lip, sinuses and other bony structures. There were two episodes of acute tissue rejection at three, five and seventeen months after transplantation but they were appropriately controlled by one of the immunomodulatory drugs or by use of a steroid. His kidney and liver functioned normally with no infections overall.

“This case suggests that facial transplantation might be an option for restoring a severely disfigured face, and could enable patients to readily reintegrate themselves back into society,” Shuzhong Guo said.

Laurent Lantieri in the department of plastic and reconstructive surgery at CHU Henri Mondor in Creteil, lead author of the other study published in The Lancet, said the 29-year-old French man is in “excellent” form after a face transplant, which reconstructed his face after it was disfigured by a rare tumor. The recovery still had two negative events in the sense that his body rejected the transplanted tissue on day 28 and day 64 after the surgery. But with special care and the appropriate medication, he gained his smile back and he was able to begin full-time work as an accountant after 13 months after the surgery.

“Our case confirms that face transplantation is surgically feasible and effective for the correction of specific disfigurement,” Dr. Laurent Lantieri and colleagues wrote in their study.

Just these two men and French women Isabelle Dinoire have received face transplants. The latter had the surgery in November 2005 after her dog disfigured her. She overcame two episodes of rejection, but eighteen moths after the transplant she was able to eat, drink and smile again.

Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard, of the E Herriot University Lyon I Hospital, France, and Dr. Bernand Devauchelle, of the Amiens-Nord University Hospital, Amiens, France, welcomed the studies saying that such surgeries could benefit people suffering from trauma, malformations, benign tumors, burns but cooperation between the pioneering teams responsible for these operations is necessary “to answer the many technical, functional, immunological, and psychological questions raised by face transplantation.”