Woman Has First Face Transplant

(CNN) -- Doctors in France say they have performed the first partial face transplant on a woman who had suffered extensive injuries in a dog attack.

A joint statement from hospitals in Lyon and Amiens in northern France said on Wednesday the surgery took place Sunday in Amiens on a 38-year-old woman, replacing her nose, lips and chin.

The woman was in "excellent" condition and that the transplanted organs look "normal," the statement said. She wants to remain anonymous, it added.

Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard, one of the surgeons who performed the transplant at Amiens University Hospital, told The Associated Press the transplant was the world's first of its kind.

But "we still don't know when the patient will get out," he said. He refused to give any more details until a news conference on Friday at 1 p.m. in Lyon.

The grafted tissue came from another woman who had been declared brain-dead, with the consent of her family, the statement said.

Various organs were also donated from the deceased woman for other patients.

The statement said the woman who received the partial facial transplant had "lesions that were extremely difficult and nearly impossible to repair using standard facial surgery methods."

Doctors from CHU Amiens and a team from CHU Lyon participated in the procedure, the statement said.

Similar procedures have been discussed by British and American doctors, but because of ethical concerns they have not been approved.

Scientists have previously performed scalp and ear transplants but experts say the mouth and nose are the most difficult parts of the face to transplant.

The woman will not look identical to her donor even once the swelling has gone down. Her appearance will be somewhere between her original face and the face of the donor.