Beijing, April 14 (Reuters): Chinese doctors have performed the country’s first face transplant, the second operation of its kind in the world, Xinhua news agency said today.

The 30-year-old patient, attacked by a bear, had two thirds of his face replaced in an operation that lasted 14 hours and ended today.

“The surgery is even more complex than the first face transplant in France in November last year,” said Han Yan, deputy director of the plastic surgery department of the Xijing Hospital in Xian.

Surgeons in France carried out the world’s first such operation on Isabelle Dinoire, 38, whose lips and nose were torn off by her own dog.

The Chinese patient was given a new cheek, upper lip, nose, and an eyebrow from a single donor, Xinhua said.

The patient was attacked by a bear in 2004.

“He has since lived as a recluse because of his horrific disfigurement,” Xinhua said.

The patient was recovering, but it would take six months for feeling to be restored to the new face.

He also needed to overcome psychological and ethical problems, Xinhua added.

“His wife may take a long time to adjust to his new face,” it said.

The Xijing hospital successfully performed a facial skin transplant operation on a rabbit in December, transplanting half the skin tissue from a New Zealand rabbit, Xinhua said.

“A fortnight later, the rabbit was in good condition with the eye on the transplanted side blinking naturally,” the agency said.

Dinoire, a divorced mother of two teenage daughters, said at a news conference in Amiens, France, after the operation that she passed out when the dog bit her and that she did not immediately realise the extent of her disfigurement when she awoke.

“When I woke up, I tried to light a cigarette, and I didn’t understand why I couldn’t hold it between my lips,” Dinoire said.