17-year-old burn victim receives face transplant

A teenager from Fujian province underwent the final operation last week in a process to transplant healthy tissue grown on her chest to her face, which had been disfigured in a fire.

Xu Jianmei, 17, a resident of a small fishing village, lost her chin, eyelids and a large part of her right ear in the fire when she was 5 years old.

At the time, her injuries went largely untreated because her family could not afford the medical bills.

But last year, doctors proposed taking tissue from her leg and growing it on her chest, then finally transplanting it to repair the injured parts of her face.

"First, we took a piece of blood vessel fascia (tissue that surrounds vessels and muscles) from her thigh and implanted it in her chest. Then we inserted a skin expander beneath the part of skin where the blood vessel fascia was planted, so that it could expand and produce enough skin for her new face," said Jiang Chenghong, Xu's surgeon.

Once the tissue had been declared viable, it was transplanted to her face in the final stage of the process last week. Doctors believe that the scars will heal over the next several weeks.

"She will even be able to blush when her emotions change," said Jiang. "But it may take a long time."

A similar operation was conducted in September, when a man in Fujian received a new nose that was grown on his forehead using tissue taken from his ribs.