Cleveland Surgeons and Medical Professionals Perform Revolutionary Face Transplant
A highly diverse group of medical professionals led by Cleveland Clinic’s Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Institute have completed the first-ever “80 percent facial transplant” on a female patient that suffered severe facial trauma.
While personal information about the patient has been withheld for privacy reasons,the press release states that the 22 hour procedure was the “largest and most complex face transplant in the world.” Many critical components of the face were restored. Surgeons precisely integrated facial structures like the lower eyelids and nose, while also replacing different complex tissues like skin, nerves and arteries.
Director of Plastic surgery research and team leader Maria Siemionow has spent a significant part of her career researching and developing such a procedure. She was able to lead a group of professionals from a variety of areas, including psychology, anesthesia, opthamology, dentistry and others. A cooperative approach of this magnitude is the only way to succeed in such a complex surgical procedure.
Dr. Siemionow has a profound connection between her work and her motivation to help injured patients. “No other aspect of our anatomy is capable of even a fraction of the complexity of motion and emotion allowed by the muscles and tissues of the face” says Siemionow.
