Photo Credit: Georgiy Datsenko
The overall survival for face transplants is encouraging, with 10-year survival at 74%, according to a study in JAMA Surgery. A team of researchers examined the first 50 face transplants in the world (18 centers in 11 countries; 2005 to 2023). Thirty-nine men with a median age of 35 years (range, 19-68) and nine women with a median age of 35 years (range, 19-68) underwent transplant procedures. During a median follow-up of 8.9 years, six transplants were lost, with two patients retransplanted. Ten patients died, two of whom had lost a transplant. The five-year survival of transplants was 85%, and 10-year survival was 74%. The sequential number of transplants in the world significantly predicted survival. The median number of acute rejection episodes per year for the transplants that survived was 0.7 versus 1.2 for transplants that were lost. Patient and transplant variables did not correlate with survival or the number of rejection episodes.
