Face transplant

A face transplant is a medical procedure in which all or part of a person's face is replaced using tissue from a deceased donor. It is a form of Vascularized Composite Tissue Allotransplantation (VCA), a medical field which involves the transplantation of multiple types of tissues as a functional unit. Face transplantation may include the grafting of skin, nasal structures, the nose, the lips, facial muscles responsible for expression, sensory nerves, and, potentially, underlying facial bones. Recipients of face transplants require lifelong immunosuppressive therapy to prevent rejection of the transplanted tissue by the immune system.

The world's first partial face transplant on a living human was performed on Isabelle Dinoire in November 2005 at the Amiens-Picardie University Hospital in France. The 15‑hour surgical operation transplanted a triangular graft comprising the nose, lips, and chin from a brain‑dead donor onto Dinoire, who had suffered a traumatic dog mauling earlier that year. The world's first full face transplant was completed in Spain in March 2010 by a team at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain onto a male recipient who suffered from severe disfiguration. In increasing order of successful procedures, Turkey, France, the United States, and Spain are considered the leading countries in the performance and research into the procedure. As of 2025, around 50 partial and full face transplants have been successfully performed worldwide.

The ethical, psychosocial, and medical aspects of face transplantation are still subject to debate, particularly concerning topics such as long-term immunosuppression, changes in identity and quality of life. In October 2019, the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funded AboutFace, led by British cultural historian Fay Bound Alberti (University of York). The project convened surgeons, ethicists, and patients globally to determine potential future developments in the field of facial transplantation. This groundwork contributed to a subsequent report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), which proposed updated guidance aiming to improve patient care and procedural outcomes.