First Full Facial Transplant on Tap...But When?

A doctor at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic is ready to perform the world's first full facial transplant... just like she was two years ago. But no perfect candidate has appeared.

That's the word from CNN, which interviews Dr. Maria Siemionow, who hopes to take the next step after a partial face transplant was performed on a woman in France last year. (She's the one who was mauled by her dog and reportedly planned to keep smoking despite her new partial face.)

Why the wait? While she's gotten at least one call -- from a young person with acne who wanted a new face -- nobody has been just right yet:

Appropriate candidates would be burn or accident victims who haveexhausted all other reconstructive possibilities. For the transplant,
the entire skin flap of a patient's face and possibly parts of thescalp, ears and neck would be replaced.

Patients have to fulfila lot of criteria. They would have to take immune-suppressing drugs forthe rest of their lives to prevent tissue rejection. They would requirea built-in escape clause.

"One of the most important things isthat the patient who is a candidate for facial transplantation requiresenough skin in their own body, where we can actually rescue them orhave an exit procedure in case the face transplant would be rejected,"
Siemionow said.

I wonder how closely the federal witness protection people are watching the developments in facial transplants? There may be no better way to turn a somebody into a nobody.

Along these lines, there was a major book published a few years ago about the witness protection program. Anyone know if it touched on plastic surgery for relocated witnesses?

The next step in face transplants [CNN]