BOSTON -- A controversial procedure that made history overseas is coming to a Boston hospital.

Boston's Brigham & Women's Hospital is the first U.S. hospital approved to start performing face transplants, television station WCVB reported.

The hospital said the operation is only for people who have severe facial disfiguration.

The procedure was first performed in 2005 for a French woman named Isabelle Dinoire, 38, who underwent the operation after she was mauled by her Labrador retriever dog. She received a new chin, nose and lips. The tissues were transplanted from a woman who was brain dead after committing suicide.

Only one other known face transplant has ever been performed, in China.

The New England Organ Bank gave the hospital permission to perform the surgery.

The organ bank is the oldest independent organ procurement organization in the country and serves 12 transplant centers that perform all types of organ transplantation. It allocates organs for transplant regionally and nationally through the United Network for Organ Sharing's national network, according to its Web site.

The hospital will only consider candidates who have been severely disfigured by facial burns, trauma or skin cancer. To be eligible, they must already be kidney transplant patients, because they are already on medication to prevent organ rejections.

Some critics question the procedure, saying face transplants are unethical because there is a risk to a patient's life for an operation that is not life-saving.

The hospital will have a team in place to perform the transplants within the next few weeks, but it could be months or even years before a suitable donor and recipient are found.