Surgeons at the University of Louisville School of Medicine are poised to perform what has been compared in importance to the world's first heart transplant: transplanting a hand.
A research team has been granted approval by the school of medicine and the Jewish Hospital Institutional Review Board to transplant a hand from a dead person to a person who has lost a hand to disease or an accident. The physicians plan to try the operation this year, but they first need to find a patient and are reportedly seeking a candidate between the ages of 18 and 65.
Dr. Gordon Tobin, chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Louisville, told both UPI and the Associated Press that the procedure has the potential to be a major breakthrough that is comparable to the importance of heart and kidney transplants. "The need is enormous," Dr. Gordon told UPI.
However, detractors say that the risks of transplanting a nonvital body part, such as a hand, outweigh the benefits, in part because the recipient would require potentially lethal levels of immunosuppressive drugs to prevent rejection.
A hand transplant was attempted in South America in 1964--before modern immunosuppressives became available--but the hand was rejected two weeks after surgery.
Several news articles about events leading to the approval of the procedure, including coverage of a symposium held in November to address the issue, can be accessed through www.jhhs.com/kkahcc.htm.
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