ArticlePlastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open2019
The Ethics of Facial Allotransplantation: A Systematic Review.
Article in Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Is There an Increasing Interest in Vascular Composite Allotransplantation? A Search Trends Analysis.Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2026Article
- Management of Avulsive Soft Tissue Ballistic Facial Injuries.Seminars in plastic surgery · 2025Review
- Are face transplant candidates choosing autonomously? A preliminary method to evaluate autonomous choosing in psychosocial and bioethical assessments.Frontiers in transplantation · 2024Article
- Trends, Gaps, and Collaboration in Facial Transplantation: A Bibliometric Study.Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2022Article
- Facial Transplantation: Complications, Outcomes, and Long-Term Management Strategies.Seminars in plastic surgery · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCurrently, there are more than 40 cases of facial allotransplantation performed by 13 different groups in 10 countries. Although it has become a potential option to reconstruct and restore the function and appearance of severely facially disfigured individuals, the ethical concerns of facial allotransplantation remain unsolved. We conducted a systematic review to better understand the ethical concerns on facial allotransplantation and the changing trends of the ethical debate over time.
methodsA systematic review of 3 databases was performed to identify articles related to ethical topics on facial allotransplantation. The inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed articles written since 1995 on the topics of ethics and facial allotransplantation in English, French, and Chinese languages. The ethical concerns extracted from the included articles were categorized into 4 core principles of ethics: autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. The different themes under these 4 principles were extracted and subgrouped. The positions of the included articles were collected. Joinpoint regression was applied to compare the frequency of themes and positions by publication year. We presented the main topics on ethical concerns and the changing trends in ethical themes and principles of facial allotransplantation.
resultsThere were 889 articles identified initially. After excluding 265 duplicated articles, 624 articles were included for title/abstract review process, and 148 articles were included in final data analysis. The publication year was from 2002 to 2018 with 136 articles in English, 11 in French, and 1 in Chinese. The most addressed principle was nonmaleficence (117/148, 79.1%), followed by beneficence (116/148, 78.4%), justice (103/148, 69.6%), and autonomy (86/148, 58.1%). The themes on immunosuppression/rejection, quality of life, and identity were the top 3 addressed ethical concerns. Twelve of 13 most addressed ethical themes demonstrated a decreasing trend after 2004. The themes of identity under beneficence showed a significant decrease after 2004. Ethical concerns on the cost/financial topic were the only one showing consistently increase trends from 2002 to 2018. There was a significant increase of the papers in favor of facial allotransplantation procedure comparing to those were against or neutral before and after 2008.
conclusionsMore and more articles support facial allotransplantation as a feasible option to reconstruct and restore the function and appearance of severely facially disfigured individuals. The requirement of life-long immunosuppression therapy, quality of life, and identity center the ethical debates. Supported by favorable short-term results, 12 of 13 most addressed ethical concerns have trended down. The theme of cost/financial topic becomes more frequently addressed in recent years.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.