BEIJING, Dec. 1(Xinhuanet)  -- A 38-year-old French woman has become the world's first person to receive a face transplant.

    The woman lost her nose, lips and chin in a terrible dog attack in May. She had been unable to talk or chew.

    The operations were carried out by a team led by Professor Bernard Devauchelle and Professor Jean Michel Dubernard over the weekend in the northern city of Amiens in France.

    In the operation that lasted several hours, surgeons grafted facial skin, muscles and veins from a brain-dead donor onto the nose, lips and chin of patient's lower face.

    After the operation, the surgeons said that the woman will have a "hybrid" face, that means she will not look like her donor, and neither will she look like she did before the attack.

    "This is the first facial transplant of the modern era," said Iain Hutchins, a facial surgeon and chief executive of Saving Faces - The Facial Surgery Research Foundation, a medical research charity.

    Although it has been technically possible to carry out the operation for several years, ethical concerns and the psychological impact to the patient of looking different have prevented surgeons from doing so.

    The patient is expected to stay in hospital for several weeks in case of infection or rejection of the donor tissue.

    (Agencies)