She is "doing well, physically, immunologically and psychologically," said Professor Jean-Michel Dubernard, a transplant pioneer.
The 38-year-old woman, whose name remains a secret, had lost both lips and
her nose after she was mauled by a dog in May, and was unable to speak or eat properly.
Doctors transplanted a nose, chin and mouth taken from a brain-dead donor
onto her lower face, a world first for an operation that carries high medical risks.
"We had a very good surprise in terms of the colour of the skin," said
Professor Devauchelle, adding, "We will know within four to six months whether the patient will regain full sensitivity" in the transplanted area.
"The benefits are already clear. She eats, she drinks, she speaks clearly.
Before the transplant she had no lips and without lips it is very hard to
breathe, eat or drink," he said.
However the doctor did not rule out the possibility that the patient could
reject the graft. "If it doesn't work, we will go back to square one. We have
never excluded other techniques, he said.
High risk
Doctors in Europe and the United States have had the technical ability to
carry out facial transplants for some time, but held back because of ethical
concerns about the high-risk procedure.
The graft can fail if the minute nerves and tiny blood vessels of the face
do not connect properly, and there is a risk of rejection by the body's immune
system, which perceives tissue grafted from a donor as foreign.
A transplant recipient has to endure life-long immune suppressing medication that can have severe side effects, and must face the challenge of adapting to their new appearance.
However doctors said there was a "striking" resemblance between the woman's face before and after the operation, given that the face takes its shape both from the tissues and the bone structure.
The transplant operation itself, carried out in the northern town of Amiens, lasted 16 hours and involved some 50 people.
Blood supply to the graft was re-established less than four hours after its
removal, an essential condition to bringing the tissues back to life.
Two days later, the patient was flown to Lyon for the post-surgical phase,
where she remains under observation by Dubernard's team of transplant experts.
As well as immuno-suppressing drugs, she is to receive two injections of
stem cells taken from the donor's bone marrow, aimed at increasing her
long-term tolerance of the graft.