title: [Partial allotransplantation of the face including the mandible: a feasibility study].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Facial grafts are useful in that they allow the repair of severe facial defects in one step in contrast to the actual available techniques which require staged procedures with limited cosmetic and functional results. The aim of our study was to determine whether it would be possible to include part of the mandible in a partial allotransplant of the face.
  
  
  METHODS
  An anatomical study on the arterial and venous vascularisation of the face and the mandible was performed on 7 heads. Then nine heads were used to describe an anatomical model of harvesting two-thirds of the lower face.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study determined that a graft could be viable with a facial artery, inferior dental artery and two veins facial. Thus, a reliable method for harvesting hemi-mandible and total mandible is developed. The average sampling time was 4 hours and thirty minutes. Harvesting a total mandibular graft was more tedious because of the loss of joint laxity caused by the absence of mandibular osteotomy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Partial allotransplant of the face including the mandible is feasible. In such transplantations, functional difficulties related to the temporo-mandibular joint and orthognathic problems need to be overcome.
authors.affiliation: CHU Dijon, Service d'ORL et Chirurgie Cervico-Faciale, 3 rue Faubourg Raines, 21000 Dijon, France. mireille.folia@chu-dijon.fr
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Folia
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Disant
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Romanet
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Faure
mesh_terms: D005145:Face / Q000098:blood supply; D054445:Facial Transplantation; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D008334:Mandible / Q000098:blood supply / Q000637:transplantation*; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D020858:Tissue and Organ Harvesting; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D014656:Vascular Surgical Procedures