'Full Face' Transplant is a First, Spanish Doctors Say

April 23, 2010— -- Isabelle Dinoire, James Maki and Connie Culp all awed the public as some of the few on the planet to survive disfiguring accidents and benefit from cutting edge face transplants.

But Spanish doctors say no previous operation compares to the feat performed at Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona last month.

The lead surgeon is calling it a "full face transplant" that included all of the donor's jaw, teeth and even bone behind the lips.

Doctors declined to share the name or age of the patient, saying only that he is a Spaniard who suffered severe disfigurement in an accident five years ago.

The injuries left him unable to swallow, speak or breathe properly. Nine previous surgeries failed to help him, the hospital said in a statement.

Under Dr. Joan Pere Barret, a team of 30 doctors transferred skin and muscles, nose, lips, palate, teeth, cheekbones and the jaw. The team used both plastic surgery and micro-neurovascular reconstructive surgery techniques.

Previous transplants did not include so many tissues in the face, or such a large area of the face. The entire operation took 24 hours to perform, according to the Associated Press. When he is completely healed, the patient will have one visible scar across his neck.

Earlier face transplants weren't as extensive. Dinoire, who was mauled by her pet Labrador, was one of the first person to receive a partial face transplant in 2005.

In 2008, Culp became the first woman in the U.S. to receive a face transplant. Nearly all of Culp's face was destroyed when her ex-husband shot her in the face with a shot gun. Doctors called Culp's surgery a "near-total" face transplant.

Maki became the second person to receive a partial face transplant in the U.S. after he fell head first into the electrified third rail of a commuter line outside of Boston. In 2009, doctor revealed his new face included a completely new nose from a donor.

Barret told reporters in a presentation not to assume the patient will look like the donor.

"He absolutely does not look like the donor patient and I think this is important for society to know, for future donations of faces, that there is no such danger," he said, in a press conference.

The anonymous patient cannot speak yet, but Barret said he is recovering well and already walking, swallowing on his own and watching television.

Plastic surgeon Dr. David Staffenberg said such feats could be transferred to help a greater number of patients with less severe disfigurements.

"Sewing together of skin, sewing together muscle, and nerves, and arteries and veins -- these are things that plastic surgeons do every day," said Staffenberg, who is chief of the division of plastic surgery at Montefiore Medical Center at New York City.