PARIS — A 35-year-old man with a genetic disorder has an entirely new face — including tear ducts that cry, and a chin that sprouts stubble — thanks to a rare full-face transplant performed by a French surgeon and hailed as a new advance in improving the lives of the disfigured.
Dr. Laurent Lantieri, one of the few doctors in the world who has performed face transplants in the past, said Thursday that the patient, named Jerome, "gave me two thumbs up" after the June 27 operation at the Henri-Mondor hospital in the Paris suburb of Creteil.
"The patient is doing very well," Lantieri told The Associated Press. "He is very happy, but that is not the final goal for us, a pretty picture. The final goal for us is social re-insertion," or allowing the patient to reconstruct a life not haunted by a deformed face.
Rivals called the French operation, similar to one carried out in Barcelona in April, a new achievement in facial transplants, a procedure that has gradually gained global acceptance and overcome skepticism since the first was conducted in 2005, also in France.
Lantieri claimed the latest surgery was the first involving so many different facial features. The hospital said the operation was the 12th face transplant worldwide since the first conducted in 2005 on the nose, mouth and chin of a woman disfigured by a dog attack.
Replacing eyelids and tiny tear ducts is especially challenging, other surgeons said. The nerves must regrow, and the lids must be sturdy enough to protect the eyes but supple and swift enough to blink.
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