Face Transplant: Extrapolation to Children and Teenagers

Bernard Devauchelle (1, 2) , Sylvie Testelin (2) , Stéphanie Dakpé (2) , C. Neiva , B. Lengele (3) , Jean-Michel Dubernard (4)

1 Département de chirurgie maxillofaciale et stomatologie [CHU d'Amiens-Picardie]
2 CHIMERE - CHirurgie, IMagerie et REgénération tissulaire de l’extrémité céphalique - Caractérisation morphologique et fonctionnelle - UR UPJV 7516
3 UCL - Université Catholique de Louvain = Catholic University of Louvain
4 Hôpital Edouard Herriot [CHU - HCL]

If there is without any contest a place for face transplant in adults despite the real status of the first 35 realised ones, it is not so obvious that face transplant could be so clearly extrapoled to children. The question is not surgical. It is related to the pathologies themselves for which transplant could be suitable. Moreover the procurement of face transplant will be more difficult because of immunologic criteria but also age and photo type. Specificity of the newborn malformative face is usually not only a question of tissue defect. It is reasonably not an indication for VCA. It should be added that nothing is known about the future of transplantation in terms of duration but also morbidities due to immunosuppression. Indications critera are rather negative. To raise the question of VCA for children has a double benefit. The first is to point out that surgical innovation oftenly arise from a non-imaginable or non-imagined clinical situation. The second is the question of VCA in newborn regarding the tolerance.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Bernard Devauchelle, Sylvie Testelin, Stéphanie Dakpé, C. Neiva, B. Lengele, et al.. Face Transplant: Extrapolation to Children and Teenagers. E-Mémoires de l'Académie Nationale de Chirurgie, 2016, 15 (2), pp.47-54. ⟨10.14607/emem.2016.2.047⟩. ⟨hal-03598617⟩