Face-transplant surgeon gives accident victim a new pair of legs

Doctors in Spain have carried out the world's first double leg transplant, giving new limbs to a patient who lost both at mid-thigh in an accident.

The Valencia regional government said the surgical team was led by Dr Pedro Cavadas, who in 2009 carried out Spain's first face transplant - the first anywhere to include a new tongue and jaw.

It said the operation at La Fe Hospital in Valencia was extremely complex and Dr Cavadas will wait at least 48 hours to release more information.

Dr Rafael Matesanz, director of the National Transplant Organisation, said yesterday: "Today we can say a landmark has been reached."

The operation began on Sunday night, and lasted about 13 or 14 hours.

There were no details as to how the patient was doing, but if the limbs are rejected it will happen more or less immediately. It will be a month or so before doctors know how successful the surgery has been.

Doctors originally tried to give the patient artificial legs, but the operation was unsuccessful as the patient had lost them so high. The operation was approved in 2010 and since then doctors have been waiting for legs to be donated.

No information was given on the donor or the recipient.

Dr Cavadas is known for directing ground-breaking operations. In one, he kept a patient's arm alive by temporarily implanting it on the patient's leg.

In another, he converted a one-handed patient's right hand into a left hand in order to move it from his right arm to his left one, after the patient had suffered a paralysis.