Johns Hopkins to begin facial transplants

BALTIMORE (AP) - Johns Hopkins Hospital says it will begin performing facial transplants.
 
   The Baltimore hospital announced Wednesday that a university review board has given approval to allow a transplant team to begin accepting patients. The team will be led by Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee and include Dr. Chad Gordon. Hopkins says Gordon was a member of a team at the Cleveland Clinic that performed the nation's first nearly full-face transplant.
 
   Hospital officials say the procedure has only been performed six times in the United States.
 
   In March, the University of Maryland Medical Center announced that surgeons had conducted the most extensive face transplant ever.
 
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   Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Johns Hopkins