Overview
- AIIMS hosted a February 11–15 cadaveric workshop led by Dr Indranil Sinha of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, with facial tissue harvested from a brain-dead donor for training.
- Surgeons have started “dummy” transplants and opened a registry to identify patients with severe, non-restorable facial damage after multiple reconstructive surgeries.
- Officials say they plan to register 10–20 potential recipients in the next six months and expect the first live procedure could take months to a year depending on licensing and donor availability.
- Donor matching will require brain-death confirmation, immune compatibility and practical considerations like skin-colour match, with harvested facial tissue viable for a very limited window.
- AIIMS cites in-house capacity for lifelong immunosuppression and rejection management and is coordinating a team across plastic surgery, anaesthesia, immunology, psychiatry and rehabilitation with international support.