Turkish Surgeons Carry out Country's First Face Transplant

Turkish surgeons on Saturday successfully performed the country's first-ever face transplant, the Anatolia news agency reported.

A team of doctors at Akdeniz University in the southern city of Antalya performed the operation on a 19-year-old boy whose face was burned when he was a 40-day-old baby, said Anatolia.

Tissue from the face of a 45-year-old donor was successfully transplanted, it said.

The operation brings to 20 the number of face transplants carried out worldwide, the report said. The first was a partial face transplant on Frenchwoman Isabelle Dinoire in 2005.

Turkish doctors were performing another operation Saturday from the same donor, on a 34-year old man in what was reported as the world's first double arm and single leg transplant.

Doctors were transplanting limbs to a man who lost both arms and one leg when he was electrocuted at the age of 11, said Anatolia.