The recent history of face transplantation includes a few chronological key issues that promoted the development of face VCA in the past few years. In November 2004, following an increasing scientific, social and mass media interest, the Royal College of Surgeons in London released the “Working Party Report on Face Transplantation”, which concluded that at that point further basic science, psychological and translational research was necessary to implement the discipline in human clinical practice. At that moment in time, though, the University of Louisville had published a series of documents pointing out the ethical and scientific relevance of face transplantation in selected patients.

The same year, the CCNE (Comité Consultatif National d’Ethique) in France was in favour of the implementation in clinical practice of a partial human transplantation, although expressed its reserve for an integral, full-face transplantation. Few months later, in October 2005, the Ethics Committee of the Cleveland Clinic granted permission for a face transplantation to Dr. Siemionow’s team (world expert and pioneer in experimental face transplantation) to perform face transplantation in humans. In 2005, the American Society of Plastic Surgery (ASPS) produced a similar document to that of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, serving as a clinical guide, recommending the practice of human face programmes in gradual increments. Soon afterwards, human face transplantation became a reality in Amiens, France, where doctors (Dr. Bernard Devauchelle and Dr. Jean Michel Dubernard) within a multidisciplinary team performed the world’s first partial human face transplantation (Fig. 2.1). The intervention was performed on a woman who had suffered the attack of a domestic dog, sustaining the loss of the lower part of her face. Initial and midterm report on the intervention granted the success of the transplantation, followed by good to excellent documentation of sensory and functional recovery. The medical community and society in general had a favourable response to this transplantation. Following this first case, subsequent favourable ethical reports for face transplantation programmes were achieved in the Netherlands (University Hospital Utrecht) and in the UK (Royal Free Hospital, Dr. Peter Butler). At this point in time, a general acceptance was observed on the immunological survival of face transplants, sensory and functional recovery, with a technique far superior to conventional reconstructive surgery.