Medical and Hospital News
SPACE MEDICINE
Mayo Clinic performs successful face transplant
Derek Pfaff's life changed forever on March 5, 2014, when a tragic incident during his college years left his face severely damaged by a gunshot.
Reuters Events SMR and Advanced Reactor 2025
Mayo Clinic performs successful face transplant
by Heather Carlson Kehren for Mayo News
Rochester MN (SPX) Nov 20, 2024

A Michigan man can blink, swallow, smile and breathe through his nose for the first time in a decade thanks to a face transplant performed at Mayo Clinic. This transformative and complex procedure underscores Mayo Clinic's skilled multidisciplinary surgical team who provide hope to patients with complex medical needs.

Derek Pfaff's life changed forever on March 5, 2014, when a tragic incident during his college years left his face severely damaged by a gunshot.

"I was under a lot of pressure at college. I don't remember making the decision to take my own life. When I woke up in the hospital, I originally thought I had been in a car accident," he says.

Despite undergoing 58 reconstructive facial surgeries in 10 years before going to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, he was still unable to eat solid food or speak casually with friends and family. Wearing glasses proved impossible without a nose. This transformational face transplant at Mayo Clinic means the now 30-year-old from Harbor Beach, Michigan, will once again be able to do all those things he has missed. He has also become a passionate advocate for suicide prevention and plans to share his story to encourage others who are struggling to get help.

"I lived for a reason. I want to help others," Pfaff says. "I am so grateful to my donor, his family and my care team at Mayo Clinic for giving me this second chance."

"Mayo Clinic Transplant Center is the largest integrated transplant center in the world. We were the first transplant center in the country to make face transplant part of its clinical practice. That has allowed us to focus exclusively on the needs of each individual patient," says Hatem Amer, M.D., medical director of Mayo Clinic's Reconstructive Transplant Program.

In the 19 years since the first face transplant was performed, more than 50 have been done around the world. Survival outcomes for these transplants are encouraging, according to a recent JAMA Surgery study. Mayo Clinic performed its first face transplant in 2016.

How the surgery was done
Mayo Clinic surgeons performed Pfaff's face transplant in February 2024 in a procedure that lasted more than 50 hours and involved a medical team comprised of at least 80 healthcare professionals, including surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, technicians, assistants and other specialists.

This multidisciplinary team was led by Samir Mardini, M.D., a facial reconstructive and facial reanimation surgeon and surgical director of Mayo Clinic's Reconstructive Transplant Program. Dr. Mardini estimates that 85% of Pfaff's face, including the mandible and maxilla, was reconstructed and replaced with donor tissue.

Surgeons meticulously planned this complex operation over several months. To ensure precision and accuracy, a digital surgical plan was created relying on detailed scans of both the donor's and recipient's faces, allowing the team to perform the surgery digitally first. Facial nerve mapping also was performed of both the donor and recipient's nerve system to understand the function of each nerve. While the digital aspect ensured preparation, customized 3D-printed cutting guides translated these plans into tangible tools to be used in the surgical suite.

The intricate transplant required replacing virtually everything below Pfaff's eyebrows and part of his forehead, including his upper and lower eyelids and intraorbital fat, upper and lower jaws, teeth, nose, cheek structure, neck skin, hard palate and parts of his soft palate. Relying on the preoperative facial nerve mapping, one of the most critical aspects of the face transplant surgery was ensuring the donor and recipient's delicate facial nerves - 18 branches between the two sides - were properly connected to restore function. A new microsurgery technique also was employed to transplant the donor's tear drainage system, which allows Pfaff's tears to drain normally into his new nose. Pfaff can now express happiness, sadness, joy and disappointment through his transplanted facial muscles and nerves.

"Most organ transplants are lifesaving. With facial transplantation, it's a life-giving operation. You can live without it, but you are missing out on life," Dr. Mardini says.

The medical team included specialists from Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Transplant, Nephrology, Neurology, Ophthalmology, Dermatology, Pathology, Radiology, Critical Care, Anesthesia, Psychiatry, Infectious Diseases, Histocompatibility, Pharmacy, Nursing, Social Work, Rehabilitation, and Speech and Language Pathology.

"This successful transplant would not have been possible without the donor and his family's generous gift and the care team's collaboration and dedication," Dr. Mardini adds.

LifeSource, the federally designated organ procurement organization for the Upper Midwest, also played a pivotal role in the transplant, working closely with the family of the donor and Mayo Clinic care teams. Thanks to his face transplant, Pfaff says he is focused on making plans for his future.

"This surgery has transformed my life. I feel so much more confident. I am hoping to one day meet someone, settle down and have a family," he says. "I'm also going to keep sharing my story with others to help as many people as I can."

Related Links
Mayo Clinic
Space Medicine Technology and Systems

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
SPACE MEDICINE
Robot learns surgery skills by watching videos, matches human precision
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Nov 18, 2024
A surgical robot trained by observing videos of experienced surgeons has successfully executed surgical tasks with a level of skill matching human doctors. This breakthrough in robotic training employs imitation learning, significantly simplifying the process of programming surgical robots. By using visual input rather than coding each movement, this approach advances the potential for robots to perform complex surgeries autonomously. "It's really magical to have this model and all we do is ... read more

SPACE MEDICINE
Senegal navy intercepts almost 1,000 illegal migrants in one month

Failure haunts UN environment conferences

MapGuard enhances emergency evacuation tools across the Baltics

Ukraine urges gamers not to enter Chernobyl exclusion zone

SPACE MEDICINE
Space Systems Command and U.S. Navy achieve major MGUE program milestone

N. Korea jams GPS signals, affecting ships, aircraft in South

Successful demo showcases BAE Systems' next-gen M-Code GNSS technology

BeiDou remote sensing experiment enhances ecological monitoring in Yellow River

SPACE MEDICINE
Friendly social behaviors influence chimpanzee interactions

Sitting for extended periods linked to higher cardiovascular risk even in physically active individuals

Dementia risk method uses machine learning for scalable and affordable care

Swedish app aims to solve household chore disputes

SPACE MEDICINE
'Critically endangered' African penguins just want peace and food

Shedding light on hidden biodiversity with DNA technology

Philippine hatchling stirs hope for endangered eagle

NASA research uncovers new clues about life's molecular handedness

SPACE MEDICINE
Common water disinfectant creates potentially toxic byproduct: study

Chinese film about Covid-19 wins Taiwan's top Golden Horse prizes

Fifth of dengue cases due to climate change: researchers

Spread of dengue fever in Bangladesh worries medics

SPACE MEDICINE
Eight dead, 17 hurt, in China school knife attack; Police formally arrest car ramming suspect

China battles rare wave of violent crime as economic woes bite

China clears memorial to victims of deadly car ramming attack

China removes memorials to victims of deadliest attack in a decade

SPACE MEDICINE
El Salvador troops target gangs in large-scale operation

Hungary's Orban says corks will pop if Trump wins US election

SPACE MEDICINE
Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.