AIIMS Delhi to start face transplant procedure

AIIMS Delhi may soon be India's first government hospital for face transplants, with training underway as they seek candidates for the complex surgery.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi may soon become the country’s first government hospital to offer face transplantation procedures, with cadaveric workshops and advanced surgical training already underway at the hospital, doctors said.

AIIMS Delhi to start face transplant procedure

Doctors also urged recipients to come forward for the surgery at AIIMS. “While doctors and surgeons at the hospital already perform face and neck surgeries in specific cases, more training is required for face transplants. We have already started training for the team of surgeons and cadaveric workshops have already begun. In the next six to nine months, we will be fully prepared to take up the surgery once any recipient is found. We are currently looking for such candidates,” said Dr Maneesh Singhal, head of the department (plastic, reconstructive and burns surgery) at AIIMS.

AIIMS would become the country’s first government hospital to provide such complex surgeries once the project takes off, doctors said.

According to doctors in the department, surgeons have started performing “dummy” face transplants as part of structured skill-building exercises before the procedure is attempted on patients.

Dr Maneesh added: “Identifying the right candidate and counselling becomes essential before considering them for transplantation. Unmotivated, unstable patients, patients with active infection and cancers are not the right candidates for the procedure.”

“There is a large number of patients suffering from devastating facial deformities due to acid burns, gunshot injuries, and other trauma. Many in these cases are unable to do daily essentials like eating, talking and breathing properly due to such deformations and even after 10 to 12 surgeries, they do not get respite for those patients face transplant is the surgery required,” Dr Maneesh said.

Meanwhile, doctors said the procedure comes with significant medical, ethical and logistical challenges. It requires a highly coordinated multidisciplinary team including plastic surgeons, anaesthetists, immunologists, psychiatrists and rehabilitation specialists. Recipients must remain on lifelong immunosuppressive therapy to prevent organ rejection, which carries its own risks.

Globally, face transplantation remains rare. The world’s first partial face transplant was performed in France in 2005, while Spain completed the first full face transplant in 2010. Since then, fewer than 50 successful face transplants have been carried out worldwide. The procedure is currently available only in select hospitals in the United States, France, Spain and Turkey.”