Face transplants '18 months' away
Peter Butler of the Royal Free Hospital in London said that new techniques and improved anti-rejection drugs have made it possible to graft a face on to another person. It is believed that a team of clinicians is being created at the Royal Free.In the future, patients will be to have the donated "face" of a dead person, complete with arteries and muscles, grafted on to their own. The complicated and lengthy operation would give the recipient greater movement in their face, marking a departure from the mask-like characteristics of current grafting techniques.