Expertise, innovation and research
Mayo Clinic, with transplant services in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota, performs more transplants than does any other medical center in the world. Mayo Clinic's integrated teams of surgeons, doctors, transplant nurses, pharmacists, social workers and others work together to manage every aspect of your transplant, from planning of transplant options through post-transplant care.
Mayo Clinic doctors have expertise and experience in many areas of face transplantation. Mayo Clinic doctors actively research face transplantation techniques. Advances in immunosuppressive drug therapy have allowed doctors to perform complex, multiple-tissue-type transplants in which surgeons reattach skin, bone, muscles, nerves, tendons and blood vessels simultaneously. Mayo Clinic researchers in the Mayo Clinic Transplant Center seek new ways to treat people who need transplants of all types.
Multidisciplinary team
Mayo Clinic doctors have extensive experience and expertise in many specialties. Mayo Clinic doctors and other staff in many specialties work as a multidisciplinary team to provide your treatment, based on your individual condition.
Mayo Clinic doctors trained in transplantation, facial reconstructive surgery, microsurgery, nervous system conditions (neurology), mental health conditions (psychology and psychiatry), eye and vision conditions (ophthalmology), skin conditions (dermatology), immune system disorders, infectious diseases, and other specialties may be involved in your care. Many other healthcare professionals may be involved in your face transplant care.
Expertise in microsurgery and craniofacial surgery
Mayo Clinic doctors trained in facial reconstructive surgery have experience and expertise performing many complex surgeries, including microsurgery and craniofacial surgery. Surgeons perform microsurgery in face transplant, hand transplant and other procedures.
Microsurgery involves extensive training, as it involves understanding the vascular anatomy of structures around the face, and being able to attach small blood vessels, nerves and other critical structures. To perform microsurgery, surgeons use microscopes to magnify the surgical area and use small surgical tools. Imaging specialists (radiologists) work closely with surgeons before surgery and prepare images of the surgical area.
Craniofacial surgery involves working on the facial skeleton to reconstruct major disfigurements that result from trauma, cancer resection and congenital deformities. Experience working on rebuilding a damaged face and facial skeleton, along with the extensive experience in microsurgery, allows Mayo Clinic surgeons to perform composite tissue graft transfers.