World's First Full Face Transplant, Spain

The ground-breaking operation was carried out last month on a young man whose face had been disfigured in an accident. Doctors in Barcelona who performed the latest surgery said that it was the first full face transplant to be carried out anywhere in the world. As well as skin tissue, the patient received new cheekbones, facial muscles, teeth, palate, skin, nose, lips and jaw. The gruelling operation took 24 hours in total to perform on March 20. Before the surgery, the man, a farmer in his thirties, had been unable to swallow, speak or breathe properly after accidentially shooting himself in the face in 2005. The operation was carried out in Spain, Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron University Hospital.