French surgeons give burn victim new face

French surgeons have replaced parts of a burn victim's face and hands using donor tissue, in the world's first combined operation of that kind.

The surgeons began with the hand transplant and then replaced the 30-year-old man's face from the lips up, giving him a new scalp, nose, ears, forehead and eyelids and reconnecting the nerves, tendons, arteries and veins.

An accident five years ago had left the man with burns that "prevented him from any social life", the Henri Mondor Hospital in Paris, where the operation was performed, said.

The operation took 30 hours.

The face transplant was the sixth in the world.