(CNN) -- A severely disfigured woman received the nose, cheeks, upper jaw and facial tissue from a female cadaver in the first near-total face transplant in the United States, the woman's surgeon said Wednesday.



Cleveland Clinic doctors replaced 80 percent of a woman's face two weeks ago in the first such U.S. surgery.



The 22-hour face surgery was completed two weeks ago by a team of eight surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic.



The patient had severe deformity in the middle of her face and was missing her right eye and upper jaw, the Cleveland Clinic doctors said. She could not taste or smell, and she had trouble speaking.



Dr. Maria Siemionow, the head of plastic surgery research at the Cleveland, Ohio, hospital, said many people are "hiding from society because they're afraid to walk to the grocery stores; they're afraid to go to streets because they're called names and humiliated."



"Our patient was called names, and our patient was humiliated," she said. "We very much hope for this special group of patients, there is hope, and one day they will be able to go comfortably from their houses and enjoy the things which we take for granted."



The patient is doing well, the doctors said.  Interactive: More details of the surgery »



Details about the recipient, including her name and age, were withheld at her request.



In the surgery, 80 percent of the woman's face was transplanted. The forehead and chin were left intact.



In this transplant, tissue from the donor's face was shaped and fitted into position. Multiple layers of tissue, bone, muscles and blood vessels, nerve grafts and each artery and vein were connected.  Watch an explanation about face transplants »



"Our hope is she should be able to smile again," said Dr. Frank A. Papay, chairman of the Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Institute at the Cleveland Clinic.



With physical therapy, surgeons hope the patient will regain her ability to smell and blink and will have other facial functions.



Siemionow said the patient never saw a photo of the donor and said, "the donor never looks like the recipient. The recipient never looks like the donor."



Siemionow had medical and ethical clearance for a full facial transplant since 2004. She said it has taken 20 years of research and four years to find the right patient who understood the risks involved.



The doctors' approach from the beginning was to consider "only patients who are the most disfigured" and had "exhausted all existing procedures," Siemionow said.



"This patient exhausted all conventional means of reconstruction and is the right patient," she said.  Watch Dr. Siemionow in the news conference. »



Dr. Eric Kodish, the professor and chairman of the Cleveland Clinic's Department of Bioethics, said doctors thought she would adhere to medications after the surgery.



"This patient had very robust decision-making capacity," he said.



Like with all transplants, there is a risk that the recipient's body could reject the graft. The doctors say they haven't seen any such signs.



The transplant recipient has to take immune-suppressing drugs for the rest of his or her life to prevent rejection of the donated tissue.



In the past three years, facial transplants have been completed in France and China, but these cases have raised medical and ethical questions. Read about the first facial transplant



Some candidates for a face transplant are survivors of trauma, such as burn or accident victims, who have exhausted all other reconstructive possibilities.



The recipient in France, Isabelle Dinoire, had been mauled by a dog, and the Chinese man, Li Guoxing, was attacked by a bear. Both received major facial disfigurements.



In 2007, a French team performed the third partial facial transplant on a man who was disfigured by a genetic disorder that created large tumors on his face. Watch a 2006 report about China's first face transplant



Guo Shuzhong, the face transplant doctor who handled Li's case, confirmed to CNN that he died in
Since when did she have had clearance? who led face transplant Who led the face transplant team? Who has had clearance to perform full facial transplant since 2004? What kind of team did she lead? What was reportedly transplanted? How many percent of trauma patient's face was reportedly transplanted? how much was transplanted who got clearance
2004. Dr. Maria Siemionow, Dr. Maria Siemionow, Dr. Maria Siemionow, plastic surgery nose, cheeks, upper jaw and facial tissue from a female 80 80 percent of a woman's face Siemionow
question: Since when did she have had clearance?, answer: 2004. | question: who led face transplant, answer: Dr. Maria Siemionow, | question: Who led the face transplant team?, answer: Dr. Maria Siemionow, | question: Who has had clearance to perform full facial transplant since 2004?, answer: Dr. Maria Siemionow, | question: What kind of team did she lead?, answer: plastic surgery | question: What was reportedly transplanted?, answer: nose, cheeks, upper jaw and facial tissue from a female | question: How many percent of trauma patient's face was reportedly transplanted?, answer: 80 | question: how much was transplanted, answer: 80 percent of a woman's face | question: who got clearance, answer: Siemionow