Hand transplant
From Free net encyclopedia
A hand transplant is a medical operation to transplant a hand from one human to another.
The operation is carried out in the following order: bone fixation, tendon repair, artery repair, nerve repair, then vein repair. The operation typically lasts 8 to 12 hours, whereas a typical heart transplant operation lasts 6 to 8 hours.
The recipient of a hand transplant needs to take immunosuppressive drugs, as the body's natural immune system will try to reject the hand. These drugs cause the recipient to have a weaker immune system, and suffer severely from minor illnesses.
A hand transplant was performed in Ecuador in 1964, but the patient suffered from transplant rejection after only 2 weeks.
The first successful human hand transplant was received by New Zealander, Clint Hallam. The operation was performed on September 23, 1998 in Lyon, France. After the operation, Hallam wasn't comfortable with the idea of his transplanted hand, and failed to follow the post operation drug and physiotherapy programme, and his body started rejecting the hand. The transplanted hand was removed at his request on February 2, 2001.
On January 14, 2004, the team of Professor Jean-Michel Dubernard (Edouard-Herriot Hospital, France) declared a five-year old double hand transplant a success. The lessons learned in this case, and in the 26 other hand tranplants (6 double) which occurred between 2000 and 2005, might open the way for more common transplant operations of such organs as the hand, face, kidney or larynx.
The first hand transplant in the United States was done by University of Louisville doctors in cooperation with Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. The procedure was performed on New Jersey native Tim Scott on January 24, 1999. Scott had lost his hand in a fireworks accident at age 24.
University of Louisville doctors also performed a successful hand transplant on Michigan native Jerry Fisher in February 2001.