A man whose body rejected a face transplant he received seven years ago has been given a second donor face after living nearly two months without one, French medical agencies said Friday. It is the first time in transplant history that doctors have replaced one donor face with another, according to Olivier Bastien of France's biomedicine agency. More than 12 years since the first-ever face graft was done, in France, it remains a high-risk procedure.
A transplant can help recipients - often victims of accidents, violence, or rare genetic disorders - to resume basic tasks such as breathing, eating and speaking, and restores non-verbal communication through smiles and frowns. But it also means a life-long reliance on immunosuppressant medicines, to stop the body rejecting the "foreign" organ. These drugs can leave a person vulnerable to infections and cancers.
It is a rare procedure with fewer than 40 operations performed to date, and at least six patients have died.
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