First full face transplant in London 'by next year'

THE leader of a London medical team said today that they should be able to carry out the world's first full facial transplant within a year.

Professor Peter Butler was speaking after reconstructive surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic in Milwaukee replaced 80 per cent of a woman's face with that of a donor.

Professor Butler is leader of the UK Facial Transplantation Research Team based at the Royal Free Hospital.

He said: "This latest operation once again shows how facial transplantation can help a particular group of the most severely facially injured people, for whom reconstructive surgery has not worked and those who are unable to live a normal life.

"These are people who would otherwise live a terrible twilight life, often shut away from public gaze."

Asked when his team would perform a full facial transplant, Professor Butler said: "We hope to make an announcement within the next 12 months." His team has ethical permission for a research programme of four facial transplants.

The world's first partial face transplant took place in France three years ago on a woman who had been mauled by her dog.