Tracking the health of face transplants long term

More than 40 facial transplants have been performed around the world, and as more patients are undergoing the procedure, researchers are trying to figure out how to gauge the long-term health of the transplants. While transplant teams look for certain clues, such as redness and swelling, to check for rejection in the period following the surgery, they haven’t had enough evidence to know if those signals are valid ways of detecting rejection over time. In a new study, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital looked at the cases of seven facial transplant recipients with up to eight years of follow-up. Overall, the researchers found that the signs of acute rejection seem not to have much value after two years, so transplant teams will need to continue with skin biopsies in the long run to monitor for rejection.