2017 Cooley Lecture features science of facial transplantation

April 4, 2017

Each year, the Denton A. Cooley Lectureship in Surgical Innovation honors the inventiveness, originality and vision of Cooley, one of the first surgeons at Texas Children’s Hospital and an international surgical icon and pioneer. The lecture on March 24 about the science of facial transplantation was the first lecture to be held after Cooley’s death in November 2016.

The 2017 Cooley lecturer was Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, the Helen L. Kimmel Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Chair of the Department of Plastic Surgery at New York University (NYU) School of Medicine and NYU Langone Medical Center. His lecture was titled “New Face, New Beginning: Reconstruction to Transplantation” and is available online.

Rodriguez, who is a plastic surgeon and dentist, took audience members through the history of facial reconstruction emphasizing improvements in plastic surgery, microsurgery, skin grafting, and bone and tissue transfer. He also shared his experience performing two successful face transplants and what he learned about the surgical transplantation process, organ procurement, organ rejection and many other aspects of the transplant process.

In August 2015, Rodriguez led a team of physicians at NYU in performing the most extensive successful face transplant completed to date. The recipient has continued the path to an excellent recovery and has shown no signs of rejection.

This success was due, in part, by the learning experience of the first face transplant he and his team completed in March 2012 at the University of Maryland Medical Center. This patient has experienced many life-threatening rejection episodes requiring immediate intervention.

“Dr. Cooley would have been so energized by this lecture and learning about the work Dr. Rodriguez is doing,” said Dr. Charles D. Fraser, Jr., surgeon-in-chief at Texas Children’s Hospital. “I hope everyone who attended the lecture and views it online and is inspired to innovate in every way possible.”