The breakthrough saw a 35-year-old man, who is better and only recognized as Jerome; receive a dead donor's face in a revolutionary operation that lasted for almost a day.

Surgeons at the Henri-Mondor hospital, which is on the outskirts of the French capital carried out the procedure on June 27.

Since then, Jerome has been in a critical condition in intensive care, however, at present he is considered well enough for the surgeons to talk about the world’s first full face transplant done on him.

It's the world’s first. There have been fractional face transplants prior to this, but nothing like this, said a source at the Henri-Mondor.

In late 2005 Isabelle Dinoire, now 43, went through a 15 hour operation in Amiens, which is in the north of France, after her original face was ripped into pieces by her pet dog.

A triangle of face tissue, which also includes the nose and mouth was taken from a brain-dead suicide fatality and grafted onto the face of divorced, mother-of-two belonging to the regions of nearby Valenciennes.

But Jerome, who was the victim of a genetic disease, which meant that his face was dreadfully deformed, is the foremost patient to go through a full face transplant.