Pentagon Fast-Tracks Face Transplants; 8 Operations in 18 Months
- By Katie Drummond
- December 21, 2009 |
- 11:40 am |
- Categories: Science!
It’s been less than a year since American surgeons completed their first facial transplant — replacing 80 percent of a trauma patient’s face. Now, the Department of Defense wants to fast-track the surgical science, in hopes of helping the estimated 200 veterans who’ve returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with injuries too serious to benefit from basic cosmetic surgery.
The Boston Globe reports that the Defense Department has given a $3.4 million grant to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, in hopes that the surgical team there — who performed their first facial transplant, and only the second in the country, in April — can operate on six to eight patients in the next 18 months.
For every battlefield fatality, nine troops return with serious injuries, the Globe notes. In earlier conflict, that ratio was more like 1-to-3. Better body armor and improved battlefield medical care are keeping troops alive, but leaving their bodies disfigured.
“All you have to do is walk through the wards here and you’d find patients you’d consider,’’ said Dr. Barry Martin, chief of plastic surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. “We’re left dealing with some pretty horrific injuries on patients who are going to live.’’
Civilian patients would benefit too, with Brigham surgeons hoping to turn the procedure “into a clinical practice” within two years. As the Globe points out, civilians and vets with traumatic injuries contend with similar struggles.
Although some [vets] have other injuries such as brain damage and missing limbs that limit their ability to work, others return to military jobs, living on or near bases. As is the case with civilians who have lost portions of their faces to burns, disease, or traumatic injury, some of these veterans struggle with going out in public, relationships, and work.
Of course, the surgeries aren’t a cure-all. They’re accompanied by serious physical risks, including a lifetime on immuno-suppressing drugs and the potential for rejection. And experts also warn of the psychological implications: Because of the unique nature of a human face, the transplants could carry a weighty toll for a recipient adjusting to a new set of physical characteristics. Here’s hoping the Pentagon is equally invested in long-term care for recipients of the fast-tracked procedure.
Photo: U.S. Navy
