World's second face transplant patient healing well
A Chinese man who received the world’s second-ever partial face transplant is healing well.
But his body could still reject the tissue from a brain dead patient used to give him a new nose, lip and cheek, state media reported today.
Li Guoxing, 30, had much of the right side of his face reconstructed by doctors at the Xijing Hospital in central China’s Xi’an city during a 15-hour procedure on April 14.
The official Xinhua News Agency said on its website that the donor was a man who had been declared brain dead by the hospital, but gave no others details.
Doctors are now waiting to see whether Li’s body accepts or rejects the new tissue over the next one or two months, Xinhua said.
“Judging by Li’s recovery so far, there should be few problems,” the agency said.
Li’s face was badly mauled in an encounter with a black bear in the southern province of Yunnan two years ago.
Li, a member of the Lisu ethnic group from Lanping county in Yunnan, had tried to use a stick to drive away a black bear, Xinhua said.
Six months ago, doctors in Amiens, France, performed the world’s first such procedure, transplanting lips, a chin and a nose on to a woman who had been attacked by a dog.
