Drugs studied for face transplants

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Researchers are studying anti-rejection drugs as a recent interest in hand transplants increases the possibility that a face transplant could be conducted soon.
Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's chief of plastic surgery, said it's a matter of when, not if, face transplants will be performed on humans. But since powerful anti-rejection drugs could hurt someone's chances of survival, Lee and others are studying how to wean transplant recipients from the drugs, or at least lower the doses of them.
Face transplants are getting attention across the world. At the University of Louisville, officials are likely to seek permission soon from its Institutional Review Board to transplant a face from a cadaver to a living recipient. The University of Louisville had done cadaver-to-cadaver face transplants, university spokeswoman Kathy Keadle said.
And researchers in England and France are also discussing the possibility of performing the complicated surgeries, which involve transplanting skin, muscles, fat, blood vessels and nerves.
Lee said face transplants make sense because surgeons can't adequately rebuild the faces of people who have been disfigured.
Arthur Caplan, chairman of the department of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, said there needs to be a national policy on face transplants, and the psychological and social ramifications need to be thought through.
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