Dental News - Young woman receives successful face transplant

Dental Tribune International

Thu. 30. August 2018

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CLEVELAND, U.S.: A 21-year-old woman has become the youngest person in the U.S. to receive a face transplant. Katie Stubblefield, who suffered life-threatening injuries and facial trauma caused by a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 18, received the transplant in a marathon 31-hour procedure conducted at Cleveland Clinic.

In March 2014, Stubblefield shot herself in the bathroom of her family’s Mississippi home. The bullet, which pierced her mouth and nasal cavity, irreparably damaged many of the bones of her jaw and face, and badly damaged her eyes. Prior to the full transplant, she had undergone 22 facial surgeries to help restore function, yet she still regularly faced difficulties with simple things like eating food.

Soon after Stubblefield’s accident, a surgeon suggested to her family that they should consider a facial transplant—a procedure they had never heard of. “I had no clue what a facial transplant was,” said Stubblefield in an interview with CNN. “When my parents helped explain everything to me, I was very excited to get a face again and to have function again.”

Having signed the consent forms for facial transplant surgery in November 2015, it took 18 months before Stubblefield actually underwent the procedure. During the operation, a team of 11 surgeons effectively replaced all of her facial tissue with that of the donor. Additionally, Stubblefield’s upper jaw and two-thirds of her lower jaw are bone from the donor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFua9-Rc4pw

More than a year has passed since the surgery and Stubblefield has not suffered any signs of rejection, according to Dr. Frank Papay, Chairman of Cleveland Clinic’s Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Institute. She is now able to breathe, chew and swallow more effectively, and can express emotions more easily. Subsequent operations to fine-tune her capability for speech, among other things, have been successful, and she has not suffered any side effects from being on immunosuppressant drugs.

“I am forever grateful for the care this hospital has given me and continues to offer on my journey of recovery and healing,” Stubblefield stated. “And to my donor and her family—words cannot express the appreciation I have for this incredible gift. With a grateful heart, I say thank you to all who have made this possible for me.”

Stubblefield’s face transplant was the third such surgery conducted at Cleveland Clinic, and the 40^th performed throughout the world. The first successful full face transplant took place in 2010, at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Spain.