The Commission for Transplants of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System (Comisión de Trasplantes del Consejo Interterritorial del Sistema Nacional de Salud) has approved two requests for face transplants in Spain.
Requests were made by the La Fe Hospital in Valencia and the Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Sevilla and were approved following a teleconference with the Ministry of Health. The two hospitals already have the approval of the relevant regional authorities, the Comunidad Valenciana and the Junta de Andalucía.
Under the current law, each case has to be considered separately, on merit, and referred to the National Transplant Organisation (Organización Nacional de Trasplantes). A committee, comprising 17 independent transplant experts and the head of the National Transplant Organisation study each specific case.
Face transplants are still at an experimental stage, with only seven so far having been carries out, four in France, two in the USA and one in China.