KNOWLEDGE SHALL INCREASE:Brigham doctors will do rare face transplants

Brigham and Women's Hospital has given a surgical team permission to perform partial face transplants on certain disfigured patients,making it the second US hospital that has gone public with plans to do this rare and hotly debated procedure.Only three partial face transplants have been announced worldwide-two in France and one in China-and the first one,done a year and a half ago on a woman who was mauled by her dog,created an international sensation.Critics said it was unethical to expose patients to the risks of a transplant for a non-lifesaving procedure,but the surgeons involved said face transplants have the potential to transform the lives of people so severely disfigured that they don't work or socialize.A major ethical concern is that recipients must take powerful drugs to keep their immune systems from rejecting the donor tissue,exposing them to dangerous infections and an elevated risk of cancer.To address this,Brigham doctors said they will perform face transplants only on patients already taking immunosuppressant drugs,most likely people who have had organ transplants.Some might have developed cancer on their faces as a side effect of anti-rejection drugs,while others may have suffered burns or another type of trauma. Pomahac said he has seen four patients in the past several years who potentially qualify....
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http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2007/07/29/brigham_doctors_will_do_rare_face_transplants/
As in the days of Noah...