A team of 17 surgeons, anesthesiologists, OR nurses and technicians were involved in the effort to graft the hand onto the patient. When the patient and the donor graft were prepared, the limb was joined with the patient and the surgeons attached the tendons, blood vessels and nerves to complete the surgery. The procedure took four-and-a-half hours.
The patient will begin a physical rehabilitation and regimen of immunosuppressant medication to prevent her body from rejecting the hand. The transplant surgery is part of a clinical trial at UCLA intending to confirm present surgical techniques in hand transplantation, study the return of function to the hands and assess the effectiveness and safety of a less toxic anti-rejection medication protocol.
Read the UCLA release on hand transplant.
Read other coverage on hand surgery:
– Hospital for Special Surgery Physician Transplants Tendons Into Patient’s Hand for Regained Motion
– Dr. Stacey Bremer Becomes First in the United States to Perform Specialized Robotic Hand Surgery
– Dr. Scott Wolfe Relocates Patient’s Tendons to Restore Finger Function
