For U.S. transplantation experts, 2008 may forever be known as the year of the country's first-ever face transplant.

In early December, surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic embarked on a marathon, 22-hour procedure in which they transferred 80 percent of a face -- including eyelids, bone, teeth and a nose -- from a cadaver to a living female patient.

Reconstructive surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow, who led the team of eight surgeons that performed the operation, said that the recipient of the new face had sustained a major facial trauma years ago that left her missing "major parts of her face" and robbed her of her ability to smell and taste, as well as sight in one eye. She had also experienced difficulty speaking.

While three other such procedures had been performed in China and France before this latest surgery, the operation might be the most extensive yet of its kind.

However, not all of the face transplant news of 2008 was good. On Dec. 22 -- less than a week after reports of this advance -- Scientific American noted on its blog that the Chinese patient who received the world's second face transplant had died. According to the blog, the man's surgeon told Agence-France Presse that the man died because he had been taking herbal medications instead of his anti-rejection drugs.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/YearInReview/Story?id=6512364&page=4