Re posted from The Plastic Surgery Channel…

Face transplant surgery will be available to wounded war veterans, thanks to a new multimillion dollar contract awarded by the U.S. Department of Defense.  Currently, less than ten face transplants have been performed worldwide, but eight more are expected to be performed in the next 18 months.

Wounded war veterans will be able to get face transplants if needed, thanks to a new multimillion dollar contract awarded by the U.S. Department of Defense.

The face transplant is a rare procedure; less than ten of them have ever been performed. But doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston may perform eight more over the next 18 months after receiving $3.4 million from the government. Each operation costs as much as $300,000, and insurance won’t cover it.

The patients are expected to be war veterans disfigured after injuries sustained by improvised explosive devices in Iraq or Afghanistan. However, a patient only qualifies for a face transplant, if he’s missing at least 25 percent of his face and can’t be treated through any other surgical methods.

The Boston hospital performed one face transplant in April, which was only the second one ever performed in America. But right now, sources say, as many as 200 veterans may have injuries that qualify them for this operation.

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Alam, D. S., Papay, F., Djohan, R., Bernard, S., Lohman, R., Gordon, C. R., Hendrickson, M., & Siemionow, M. (2009). The technical and anatomical aspects of the world’s first near-total human face and maxilla transplant. Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery : Official Publication for the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Inc.and the International Federation of Facial Plastic Surgery Societies, 11(6), 369-377. doi:10.1001/archfacial.2009.80

This article has  Commentary from Dr. Larrabee and Dr. Hilger that raise  the questions…

• What is different about this transplant?
• Why was it performed when traditional reconstructive techniques   have provided acceptable results for decades?

Kridel, R. W., Ashoori, F., Liu, E. S., & Hart, C. G. (2009). Long-term use and follow-up of irradiated homologous costal cartilage grafts in the nose. Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery : Official Publication for the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Inc.and the International Federation of Facial Plastic Surgery Societies, 11(6), 378-394. doi:10.1001/archfacial.2009.91

This article has a Supplement.

This article also has a Commentary from Dr. Larrabee, “…—epitomizes the meticulous clinical observation that we all should strive to achieve in our practices.”

* It should be noted that Dr. Larrabee is currently serving as Editor for the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery.