(CBS) Surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic have replaced nearly the entire face of a middle-aged man severely disfigured in a car accident, the hospital announced Tuesday.
The operation took place in late September and was only the second face transplant done at the Ohio hospital. More than two dozen face transplants have been done around the world, starting in 2005 with a French woman mauled by her dog.
The hospital said the recipient wants to remain anonymous. In a statement released by the hospital Tuesday, the man said he is "grateful beyond words to the donor and his family for their amazing gift." The donor was not identified either.
The patient became a candidate for a face transplant after many tries to reconstruct his face failed to improve his quality of life, the hospital said in a statement. The man had trouble breathing and speaking, and the transplant offered the chance to save the limited sight in his sole remaining eye.
Doctors transplanted about two-thirds of the scalp, the forehead, upper and lower eyelids, eye sockets, nose, upper cheeks, upper jaw, upper teeth, salivary glands and nerves, muscles and skin -- about 90 percent of his entire face. The operation lasted more than 24 hours.
The patient is recovering well, breathing without a tube and is expected to be able to eat soon, the hospital said. He will need medicines for the rest of his life to prevent rejection of the transplanted face.