LOS ANGELES, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- A man in the U.S. state of Michigan has received a life-changing face transplant a decade after he attempted to take his own life and survived, according to Mayo Clinic, the medical center that performed the surgery.
Derek Pfaff, the 30-year-old man in Harbor Beach, Michigan, had a tragic incident during his college years which left his face severely damaged by a gunshot.
Despite undergoing 58 reconstructive facial surgeries in 10 years, Pfaff was still unable to eat solid food or speak casually with friends and family, according to a release of Mayo Clinic on Tuesday.
He got the face transplant in February this year at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
The procedure lasted more than 50 hours and involved a medical team comprising at least 80 healthcare professionals, including surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, technicians, assistants and other specialists.
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, according to Mayo Clinic.
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, said Mayo Clinic.
The man now can smell, swallow, blink and smile for the first time in a decade after the face transplant.
"The heart is a lifesaving operation. The kidney, for the most part, is a lifesaving operation. With facial transplantation, it's a life-giving operation. You can live without it, but you're missing out on life," said Samir Mardini, surgical director of Mayo Clinic's Reconstructive Transplant Program. ■