Cork surgeon plans first full face transplant

THE race to find the world’s first volunteer for a full face transplant will get under way this week if a British hospital approves proposals for the procedure from an Irish plastic surgeon.

Peter Butler and his medical team at the Royal Free hospital in northwest London will meet its ethics board on Wednesday to seek approval for the controversial surgery.

This is the last stage in a 14-year attempt by Butler to be allowed to proceed with the operation. Last December the ethics board, which regulates the Cork surgeon’s work, granted permission for Butler and his 30-strong team of researchers to identify a patient for the operation.

The project was given a further boost last month when the board approved a consent process allowing Butler’s team to educate patients on the risks involved.

The final step is the ethical approval that will allow the procedure to be carried out.

“We applied to the ethical commission to use the selection tools we have on people seeking facial transplantation and that was, that was approved in December,” Butler said.

“The next part was to educate the patient of the risks, and that leads you on to the consent process, approved three or four weeks ago. And the final stage is to get ethical approval to do the procedure.

“Obviously there is a big question mark about Wednesday, but my feeling is the hospital would be unlikely to start the process if we can’t finish it,” Butler said.

A positive decision will intensify the search to find a volunteer willing to undergo what is likely to be a traumatic operation.

A team in Ohio, led by Maria Siemionow, a Polish-born plastic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, was granted permission to attempt the surgery last July. It has been looking for a volunteer since then.

Twenty-nine patients from Ireland and Britain have contacted Butler, some through his online database — Facetrust.com — but none have completed a full assessment.

“I have been hesitant to push them along because it seems unethical to put them through a selection criteria, an educational process and then not be able to offer them surgery — it’s a chicken and egg thing.”

If final approval is granted this week, Butler will be looking for four patients to undergo surgery. More than £40,000 (€58,000) has been raised to finance two operations.

Butler has identified one patient, a 22-year-old Englishman, as a good potential candidate. He was badly burned in a house fire as a child and has twice undergone reconstructive surgery.

Butler said: “I haven’t seen a patient that fits all the criteria, but one patient that springs to mind has had a pan-facial burn following trauma. He has a mask-like effect on his face and is missing his eyebrows. His muscles are working underneath but not very well, because the scar and the skin grafts are tethering.

Source: Times Online