Third EU face transplant to be in Spain

A Spanish surgeon has been given the go-ahead to perform Europe's third face transplant.

Valencia-based Pedro Cavadas says the patient will be a 42-year-old man whose face has been disfigured by illness.

In a world first, Mr Cavadas will also reconstruct the man's tongue and jaw bones before the transplant. His medical team is now seeking a donor.

All that is known about the patient is that he has undergone 12 failed operations to repair his face.

Mr Cavadas carried out the world's first double hand transplant.

He also successfully transplanted a man's right hand onto his left arm last summer, changing the location of the thumb.

The 63-year-old patient had lost his left hand in an accident four decades ago and four years ago suffered a stroke which paralysed the right side of his body.

The Spanish face transplant will be the fifth such operation in the world and the first in Europe outside France.

Frenchwoman Isabelle Dinoire received the first such operation in November 2005 after being mauled by her pet dog.

Other face transplants have taken place since then in France, China and America.