New blood vessels after face transplantation

Blood vessels reconnect after face transplantation

04/12/2013

Physicians were able to observe how blood vessels branched out again after a complete facial transplantation and formed new network structures. By means of computed tomography revealed to the scientists, the progress of new branches.

For patients who require a tissue transplant, for example, as a result of burning the face, the new findings provide a ray of hope. Relatively often arise in severe tissue injury problems when the body should accept the new skin tissue of organ donors. One of the most serious complications of microsurgical transplantation is the circulatory disorder. The sooner the disorder is detected and the earlier an intervention can take place, the greater the chance of a favorable prognosis. For people who are severely disfigured, tissue transplantation is often like the beginning of a new life, as the ugly consequences of an accident can be retouched as far as possible.

Thanks to a special technique, US scientists have succeeded in widening and lengthening existing blood vessels. This promotes the expansion of new vascular networks among themselves. This process is also known in the jargon „collateralization“ and were observed by the medical profession in three patients one year after the transplant.

The recordings were presented by experts Frank Rybicki and Kanako Kumamaru from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, on Wednesday at the Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago. Since 2011, four patients have received a completely new face. Blood vessels, which are mainly concerned with the supply of the rear head parts, apparently play a more central role in the reorganization of the bloodstream than previously thought. For the future, this means that vessels must be checked more thoroughly for their functionality before a transplantation. Only then can a transplant promise success for those involved. In 2005, the first large-area facial transplants were performed. At that time it was a French woman who had received a large part of a face transplanted as a result of a dog attack. (Fr)

Picture: Tim Reckmann