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 he 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. He had his transplanted hand removed at his request on February 2, 2001.
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 immuno-suppressant 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.
On the 14th of January 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 transplations of such organs as hands, face, kidney or larynx [1].
External link
Last updated: 08-23-2005 00:55:29
Last updated: 09-12-2005 02:39:13
