BWH to Perform Partial Face Transplants
A BWH surgical team is ready perform partial facial transplants in selected previous transplant patients, making BWH just the second hospital in the country able to perform this procedure which will boost patients’ confidence and help them live normal lives, said Bohdan Pomahac, MD.
Pomahac is working closely with his mentor on this project, Plastic Surgeon Julian Pribaz, MD, Chief of Transplant Surgery Stefan Tullius, MD, PhD, and Tissue Specialist Edgar Milford, MD, along with a team of transplant medicine doctors.
A few years ago, Pomahac saw a patient who refused to undergo resection of cancer because of how severely it would alter her face. “With this transplant, she would at least have hope that someday there could be a donor match,” he said.
The hospital will partner with the New England Organ Bank (NEOB) to find potential donors, who must qualify beyond regular organ donor status and match the recipient’s tissue and blood properties. Individual considerations will be given to the match of race, gender and age.
The BWH team recognizes ethical concerns and tailored BWH’s programs to address them. One concern is that transplant patients spend the rest of their lives taking immunosuppressant drugs to keep the body from rejecting the organ. BWH will only perform facial transplants on those who already are on these drugs, most likely from a previous transplant. Sensitive to identity issues, BWH will perform only partial face transplants, removing just the damaged portions of the face.
BWH has not yet performed the surgery, but all candidates will undergo psychiatric screening in addition to the general screening for all transplant patients.
Pomahac added, “There is no better place than Brigham for a pioneer operation like this, thanks to all the teams of talented individuals from various specialties.”