article: A Spanish hospital claims it has performed the 'world's most complex' face transplant, allowing a man terribly disfigured by a disease to lead a normal life. Doctors said the 27-hour procedure – to reconstruct the man's entire lower face and neck – is the most difficult surgery they have carried out to date. A spokesperson for the Vall d'Hebron hospital in Barcelona, where the surgery was performed, said a team of 45 doctors, surgeons, nurses and anaesthesiologists took part in the operation in February. Scroll down for video . The 45-year-old man, who did not want to be identified, underwent the 'world's most complex' face transplant to reconstruct his neck, mouth, tongue and throat. The X-rays show the man before and after the surgery . Other specialists from the hospital's plastic surgery and liver transplant departments were also brought in to advise on the procedure, details of which have only just been released. The patient, a 45-year-old man, did not want to be identified. Unlike similar operations, where a patient has had features of their face replaced, or rebuilt, the latest procedure was much more invasive. The man had suffered a condition called arteriovenous malformation for the past 20 years. This is a tangle of blood vessels in the brain which diverts blood from the arteries to the veins, bypassing normal brain tissue. In this man's case, it caused facial deformities and problems with his vision and speech. As a result, most of the man's face lower face was been reconstructed, including his neck, mouth, tongue and the back of his throat. And all the skin and muscles of his face, nose, lips, jaw, all teeth, palate and cheek bones were transplanted by using plastic surgery techniques and  microsurgery. There was, however, a risk of severe bleeding that put his life in danger. The man had been examined in several other hospitals, including the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School, which had considered him to be inoperable. Doctors at the Vall d'Hebron hospital in Barcelona, who carried out the procedure, say it was the world's most complex to date. The operation took a team of 45 medical staff 27 hours to complete . But the Vall d'Hebron hospital ruled surgery was his only treatment option - and this week reveled the good news that the man is now living a normal life. The hospital released a statement saying: 'This is the first time that a transplant of this complexity has been performed in the world.' 'The patient evolution after the surgery was successful, similar to any transplant patient at the hospital. 'Now he is already at home and only comes to the hospital for routine check-ups.' In 2010 the same hospital carried out the world's first full face transplant on a man who suffered an accident leaving him without a nose and with a deformed jaw and cheekbones. The first ever partial facial transplant was carried out by doctors in France in 2005, on a woman who had been mauled by her dog.
highlights: Vall d'Hebron hospital in Barcelona claims it has carried out a world-first .
  Reconstructed a man's lower face and neck in a 27-hour-long operation .
  He had  facial deformities, speech and vision problems and risk of bleeding .
  Team of 45 medical staff carried out the procedure in February .
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