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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