French doctors perform partial face transplant

French doctors have performed a partial face transplant on a 27-year-old man in the third-ever operation of its kind.

The patient suffered from a condition known as Von Recklinghausen disease that disfigured his face, Le Parisien newspaper reported today.

Transplant surgery gave him a new nose, mouth and chin, and it also replaced part of his cheeks.

The operation was carried out at Henri-Mondor hospital in the Paris suburb of Creteil by Dr. Laurent Lantieri, the report said.

The Paris hospital system said it could not immediately confirm the report, though it said it planned to release details later in the day.

News of the operation has come after a Frenchwoman received the world’s first partial face transplant in November 2005 after being disfigured by her dog.

On the one-year anniversary of the procedure, doctors said Isabelle Dinoire’s operation was a success and she was gaining more sensitivity and facial mobility.

Since that surgery, a Chinese farmer also received a partial face transplant after he was badly disfigured in a bear attack.