StarryEyedLad
December 13th, 2007, 08:32 AM
First face transplant worth the fuss, patient says
Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:32pm EST
By Gene Emery
BOSTON (Reuters) - It took 18 months for her smile to come back completely, but doctors say the French woman who received the world's first partial face transplant is doing well and is very satisfied with the results.
Isabelle Dinoire, then 38, had her nose, cheeks, mouth, lips and chin replaced by donor tissue on November 27, 2005, after they were torn off by her own dog six months earlier.
The doctors, led by Jean-Michel Dubernard of Lyon University in France, report in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine that Dinoire recovered slowly and steadily, overcoming two episodes of rejection.
Her rehabilitation program included daily psychological counseling for the first month, and regularly after that, as well as a regimen of facial exercises.
At first, because her lips did not move properly, she could not always drink neatly, but that problem cleared up after a year. Sensation to heat and cold was normal at the six-month mark, and she could perceive light touch to her new skin.
Dinoire initially had trouble moving her lips properly to pronounce words that contained sounds such as P and B, but that problem also resolved itself over time.
Six months after the transplant, she could completely close her lips when she tried.
"At present, the patient says she is not afraid of walking in the street or meeting people at a party, and she is very satisfied with the aesthetic and functional results," the Dubernard team wrote. Continued...
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1252311720071213
Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:32pm EST
By Gene Emery
BOSTON (Reuters) - It took 18 months for her smile to come back completely, but doctors say the French woman who received the world's first partial face transplant is doing well and is very satisfied with the results.
Isabelle Dinoire, then 38, had her nose, cheeks, mouth, lips and chin replaced by donor tissue on November 27, 2005, after they were torn off by her own dog six months earlier.
The doctors, led by Jean-Michel Dubernard of Lyon University in France, report in Thursday's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine that Dinoire recovered slowly and steadily, overcoming two episodes of rejection.
Her rehabilitation program included daily psychological counseling for the first month, and regularly after that, as well as a regimen of facial exercises.
At first, because her lips did not move properly, she could not always drink neatly, but that problem cleared up after a year. Sensation to heat and cold was normal at the six-month mark, and she could perceive light touch to her new skin.
Dinoire initially had trouble moving her lips properly to pronounce words that contained sounds such as P and B, but that problem also resolved itself over time.
Six months after the transplant, she could completely close her lips when she tried.
"At present, the patient says she is not afraid of walking in the street or meeting people at a party, and she is very satisfied with the aesthetic and functional results," the Dubernard team wrote. Continued...
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1252311720071213