What you can expect

During surgery

The extent and length of your surgery depends on how much of the face and its underlying structures are involved. Your surgical team may transplant various tissues from the donor, such as skin, fat, muscles, tendons, cartilage, bone, nerves and blood vessels.

The transplant will take 10 to 30 hours. Your surgical team will include plastic surgeons highly skilled in microsurgery and craniofacial surgery, anesthesiologists, ophthalmologists, surgical nurses, surgical technicians, imaging experts and others.

After surgery

After surgery, you'll likely spend two to four weeks in the hospital. During this time, you will:

• Be fed through a tube
• Begin taking your daily doses of immunosuppressant drugs to prevent your body from rejecting the transplanted tissue
• Be given medications to manage pain
• Begin physical and speech therapy, as you are able

Your transplant team — including physicians, a transplant coordinator, social worker, therapist, pharmacists, dietitians and others — will work with you to develop a post-surgery treatment plan and provide the care you need.

Immunosuppressants

Your daily post-surgical routine will include taking immunosuppressant medications and managing the side effects. These drugs can help stop your immune system from rejecting your donor face.

You can decrease the risk of rejection and medication side effects by:

• Committing to regularly taking immunosuppressant medications for the rest of your life unless directed to stop by a doctor
• Making regular appointments with your transplant team for blood tests and checkups
• Contacting your transplant team or your primary care doctor if you notice that you're becoming ill with an infection or tissue rejection.