Girl receives transplant of face grown on chest
Print Edition
A 17-year-old girl from the southeast Fujian Province has received a face transplant that was grown on her chest.
Xu Jianmei, a resident of a small fishing village, was severely disfigured in a fire that occurred when she was five years old. She lost her chin, eyelids and a large part of her right ear.
She was not able to receive treatment during the optimal treatment time, as her family could not afford it.
But last year, the chance to get a new face was presented to her, when doctors proposed growing a new face on her chest, using tissue grafted from her leg.
“First, we took a piece of blood vessel fascia from her thigh and implanted it in her chest,” Jiang Chenghong, Xu’s surgeon, explained.
“Then we inserted a skin expander beneath the part of skin where the blood vessel fascia was planted, so that the part could expand and produce enough skin for her new face.”
After checking that the tissue making up a new face can be kept alive, it can be transplanted to the patient’s face.
The last stage of the surgery was completed on Monday last week.
Xu’s new face was successfully transplanted. Doctors believe the wounds left by the surgery will heal over the next several weeks.
“With her new face, she will be able to express herself more precisely and will even be able to blush,” said Jiang.
A similar operation was conducted in late September, when a man in Fujian received a new nose that was grown on his forehead using tissue taken from his ribs.
Fewer than 10 surgeries of this kind have been performed in China’s mainland.
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