Institutional Review Board-Based Recommendations for Medical Institutions Pursuing Protocol Approval for Facial Transplantation

Background: Preliminary outcomes from the previous nine face transplants performed since 2005 have been encouraging and have therefore led to a rise in the number of medical centers interested in establishing face transplant programs worldwide. However, until now, very little literature has been published providing surgeons the necessary insight on how to (1) prepare a protocol for institutional review board approval and (2) establish a face transplant program. Methods: The authors' face transplant team's experience with the institutional review board at the Cleveland Clinic, beginning in 2002, was critically reviewed in a detailed, retrospective manner. The purpose was to identify and define certain criteria necessary for both the institutional review board approval process and face transplant program establishment. Results: In 2002, unprecedented efforts from within the authors' plastic surgery department led to the world's first institutional review board approval for face transplantation, in 2004. As a result, 4 years later, the authors' face transplant team performed the nation's first successful near-total face and maxilla transplant. Conclusions: Every surgical department hoping to establish a face transplant program must realize that this endeavor requires both tremendous financial and long-term commitments by its medical institution. These transplants should be performed only within university-based medical centers capable of orchestrating a specialized, talented, multidisciplinary team. More importantly, facial composite tissue allotransplantation possesses an unmatched level of complexity and therefore requires most centers to prepare a carefully detailed protocol using these institutional review board based guidelines. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 126: 1232, 2010.)