LYON, France-Less than a month after the world's first double hand and forearm transplant, the patient has reported sensing some feeling below the spot where the limbs were attached.
Reuters news service and the Associated Press reported on February 7 that 33-year-old Denis Chatelier announced at his first press conference that he can already wiggle his new fingers a bit. Surgeon Jean-Michel Dubernard of France characterized Mr. Chatelier's overall condition as excellent and said that hair and nails began to grow on the transplanted limbs in early February. His hands and arms were still heavily bandaged at the news conference.
Mr. Chatelier underwent the 17-hour surgery on January 13 at Edouard-Herriot hospital in Lyon. His lead surgeons were the same doctors who gave Clint Hallam of Australia a new hand 15 months ago. Mr. Hallam's operation was reportedly the first attempt at a hand transplant since a similar operation failed in Ecuador in 1964. In that case, the patient's body rejected the new hand two weeks after surgery. The only hand transplant in the United States to date took place just over a year ago at Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, where surgeons continue to seek candidates for future transplants; see www.handtransplant.com/procedure/criteria.html.
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