FACE RACE; Transplants in 6months after Irish doc gets nod.

Byline: By LOUISE MALE

THE world's first full face transplant could take place within six months after an Irish surgeon yesterday got the go-ahead for the operation.

Consultant Peter Butler was told by health chiefs he could carry out the revolutionary procedure in the UK and immediately started his search for suitable patients.

And the 44-year-old vowed the operation would eventually be a first-choice for victims of facial disfigurements, to save them long and painful reconstructive surgery.

Mr Butler said last night: "I am delighted we have got the go-ahead. It's been a long journey but this is just the beginning, really. The most important part of the process starts now...the selection of patients."

His team have already been approached by 34 people from all over the world, but the surgeon wants more to come forward.

Charities and facial disfigurement victims welcomed the news, which comes 11 months after the world's first partial transplant on dog attack victim Isabelle Dinoire in France.

But experts warned that patients must be made fully aware of the risks involved in the procedure, which include tissue rejection, cancer from long-term immunosuppressant drugs and psychological problems.

Mr Butler, who began research into transplants 15 years ago, said relatives who fear they will see the face of their dead loved ones on others after the operation need not worry. He added: "Facial characteristics, following transplant, are mostly those of the recipient rather than the donor.

"The skin falls across the bones and cartilage of the person. You would not be able to tell it is the donor's face."

The 12-hour, pounds 35,000 transplant involves removing skin, fatty tissue, veins and arteries from the donor and delicately stitching it on to the recipient.

Four to six surgeons, will carry out the operations, that will be six months apart. Psychologists will work with the patients and their families after surgery, Mr Butler said.

He added: "Patients will have already had reconstructive surgery, perhaps 50 to 70 operations. They have reached the end of the ladder and there's nothing more it can offer them. All they want is to be normal."

Mr Butler studied in Dublin at the Royal College of Surgeons and Physicians of Ireland, becoming a fellow of the Royal College in 1991 and of the Royal College of Surgeons in England a year later. He remained in Dublin for his training in plastic surgery before taking up a research fellowship in plastic surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in Boston in the US.

He was given the green light for the operations by ethics chiefs at the Royal Free hospital in Hampstead, North London, where he has worked for the past seven years.

But the Royal College of Surgeons last night said it has "grave concerns" about face transplants and advocated a "cautious approach" to the procedure.

Doctors claim immunosuppressant drugs can shorten life by up to 20 years.

HOW IT WORKS

1 Skin, underlying fat and muscles and eight blood vessels, four arteries and four veins are cut away from a donor patient in a two-hour op

2 Veins and arteries are clamped during the procedure

3 In an intricate five-hour operation microsurgeons attach the face. Patients will have to take immunosuppressant drugs to stop their body from rejecting the new tissue

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CAPTION(S):

Donor' Patient' Graphic: Roy Cooper & Brett Dietrich' HOPE: Peter Butler reflects on his delight yesterday