Spain to Make Fourth Face Transplant

Madrid, Nov 17. -Spain will make its fourth face transplant after the National Public Health System Transplant Commission approved the operation, according to press reports.

The announcement was made on Tuesday by Leire Pajin, Minister of Public Health, Social Policy and Equality, during the inauguration of a symposium called Ultimas Noticias en Transplante (Transplant Latest News) sponsored by the National Transplant Organization and the Ramon Areces Foundation.

This complex surgical intervention will be carried out at La Fe Hospital, in the Spanish city of Valencia, by a team led by Doctor Pedro Cavadas, a man who made the first operation of this kind in Spain in August 2009.

Leire Pajin informed the Transplant Commission had given the authorization, showing another example of the vitality of the public health system of Spain, since three of the 13 face transplant operations carried out worldwide have taken place in Spain.

Pajin also gave some details on the first face transplant operation by Cavadas, which was the first including the jaws and the tongue, on a 43-year-old man receiving the face tissues of a deceased man of 35 years of age.

The second surgical operation was carried out in January 2010 in Seville, Andalusia, after nearly 30 hours of work by 23 specialists, and the third, which is classified as the only full face transplant in the world, took place in Barcelona, in March this year.

This third face operation included the insertion of all the skin, face muscles, lips, teeth, the hard palate, bones of the cheeks and jaws, with the plastic surgery and micro-surgery of the blood vessels, said another Spanish expert, Doctor Joan Pere Barret.

During her speech, Pajin anticipated Spain will be the host for the first simultaneous transplant of the two legs, also by a team led by Doctor Cavadas. (Prensa Latina)