UZ Gent candidate for face transplants for American soldiers
The American military is talking to Ghent surgeon Philip Blondeel about performing face transplants on soldiers mutilated in war
Co-operation will take “several years” to set up
The American military contacted Blondeel when he was visiting the US last December. “The initiative would involve a collaboration between American and European centres,” Blondeel told De Morgen. “It would be a kind of alliance to help mutilated soldiers.”
Blondeel said it would take years to set up the co-operation. Currently, about 175 American soldiers are eligible for the transplant programme, which comes with exceptionally strict criteria.
Worldwide, surgeons have carried out 30 face transplants. The whole procedure, from finding a donor to the surgery, takes several years. The surgery is still in an experimental phase, but a new report recently published in the British medical journal The Lancet is positive about the recent progress and the possibilities in the near future.
