The first face transplant in Spain is in progress at La Fe hospital in Valencia

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The team from the prestigious surgeon Pedro Cavadas began the first face transplant in Spain on Tuesday morning. The pioneering operation was carried out in the La Fe Hospital in Valencia, according to hospital sources in an interview with the paper 20minutos.es.

The sources explained that the recipient is a male and this complicated operation can be lengthened by more than ten hours. By midnight on Tuesday they had yet to hear about the time of completion.

Dr. Cavadas already said in an interview with the paper that this operation has the same risks as any micro-constructive surgery.  The first step is the extraction of the donor's face and then to introduce it to the receiver. The main complication of this surgery is that the receiver doesn't reject the face of the dead donor.

The Ministry of Health, in a conversation with the paper would not confirm or deny that the transplant had begun.  It had been approved last June and so far only seven face transplants have been carried out in the world: four in France, two in the United States and one in China.

Hospital La Fe, in particular the team of Dr. Cavadas, had made another pioneering operation in November 2008 by transplanting two arms onto a 28 year old man.

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