U.S. Department of Defense Study

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) awarded Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) a $3.4 million grant in 2009 to fund face transplants for U.S. military veterans with severe facial deformities caused by war injuries sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan. The primary goals of the award are to improve the lives of these veterans and to develop best practices that will improve outcomes for future face transplant recipients.

The award will provide funding for six to eight face transplant procedures to be performed at BWH within an 18-month period. Accordingly, we are now actively seeking candidates for the procedure. Although military officials estimate that there may be as many as 200 veterans who would qualify for the procedure, eligible civilians will also be considered. We anticipate that the pool of eventual recipients will be a mix of veterans and civilians.

The primary requirements to be considered as a candidate for face transplant surgery are: at least 18 years old; lost a major part of the face, such as the nose or the lips, or lost at least 25% of their facial tissue; and their facial injury cannot be treated acceptably by conventional reconstructive surgery. There are number of other factors that we consider to determine who would be a suitable candidate, most of which are addressed in our Face Transplant Patient Guide.

If you think you have a patient who would qualify for face transplant surgery, please contact Dr. Bohdan Pomahac’s office at 617-732-5303 or e-mail his assistant, Lisa Quinn, at  lquinn1@partners.org.