DoD Awards $3.4 Million Face Transplant Contract
Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) won a $3.4 million contract from DoD to fund face transplants for U.S. military veterans who have severe facial deformities resulting from war injuries sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan, the hospital said in a press release. The contract is one of the first two awards provided through a new DoD initiative to advance innovative medical procedures into mainstream practice; it will fund six to eight procedures at BWH in the next 18 months, potentially doubling the number of face transplants performed worldwide since the first in 2005. The University of Pittsburgh received a smaller award to do facial reconstruction surgery.
The award will also allow eligible civilians to have the procedure. Among additional requirements, eligible recipients must be missing at least 25 percent of their face and be unable to rely on the help of standard reconstructive surgery. It is unsure how many veterans will be eligible for a face transplant, but military officials estimate as many as 200.
The DoD requires the hospital to measure results, including assessing whether the transplants improve patients’ lives and enable them to return to work. In April 2009, Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, plastic surgeon and director of the BWH burn center and a team of 35, performed the first face transplant at BWH, which was the second in the nation and seventh in the world. ♦