Ok… Last words on the face transplant.
I read some interesting information in the February 2006 “Plastic Surgery News” (a professional newletter from the American Society of Plastic Surgery) today re. this that I had not seen reported elsewhere.
This is quoting Dr. Bob Walton, a distinguished microsurgeon and former chief of Plastic Surgery at the University of Chicago. He says “After they did the transplant, the face looked wonderful… But over the past two months it’s slowly started to sag due to loss of muscle tone – it looks paralyzed.” He ponders whether an inanimate face with constant drooling as the final result will have been worth the morbidity of the surgery and the immunosuppressive regimine. He’s 100% on target.
Also discussed are what are some very signifigant acute rejections by her body of the transplanted soft tissue requiring multiple large bolus doses of steroids. This does not bode well for long term graft survival from what I remember about transplant surgery
