Doctors proposed growing a new face on the girl's chest using tissue grafted from her leg. (Representational pic courtesy Thinkstock)
A 17-year-old girl in China has received a pioneering face transplant after doctors grew tissue grafted from her leg on her chest.
Xu Jianmei had the eight-hour surgery in the city of Fuzhou, in Fujian province, in the southeast of China, earlier this month.
The teenager was severely disfigured in a fire when she was just five years old. She lost her chin, eyelids and a large part of her right ear.
Xu's parents were unable to afford her plastic surgery, but last year, doctors proposed growing a new face on her chest using tissue grafted from her leg, state-run 'Xinhua' news agency reported.
"First, we took a piece of blood vessel fascia from her thigh and implanted it in her chest. Then we inserted a skin expander beneath the part of skin where the blood vessel fascia was planted, so that the part could expand and produce enough skin for her new face," Jiang Chenghong, Xu's surgeon, said.
After making sure that the tissue making up a new face can be kept alive, it can be transplanted to the patient's face.
Doctors believe that the wounds left by the surgery would heal over the next several weeks.
"With her new face, she will be able to express herself in a more precise way. She will even be able to blush when her emotions change but it may take a long time," said Jiang.
A similar operation was conducted by Chinese doctors in late September, when a man in Fujian received a new nose that was grown on his forehead using tissue taken from his ribs.