- Image by Getty Images via @daylife
For the third time in the United States, a double hand transplant has been successfully performed. The recipient, a chiropractor from Edmond, OK, underwent more than 17 hours of surgery at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, KY. As a chiropractor, the man obviously needs his has to function properly. They had, however, been badly burned. Without fully functional hands he would not be able to treat his own patients.
Jewish Hospital in Louisville has earned a reputation for hand transplants. In 1999 it became the site of the first successful hand transplant in the world.
The surgery team kept the media updated in an interesting fashion: they used Tweets to communicate what was happening in the surgery room.
Even though double hand transplants have been performed elsewhere (twice at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and other locations around the world), this complicated, labor intensive procedure still grabbed the media’s attention. As the doctors Tweeted updates throughout the evening, it seemed that the patient was doing well and that the surgeons were making steady progress.
Now that the new hands, both of which came from the same donor, have been attached, the recipient will have to spend at least three months undergoing rehabilitation and recovery. The chiropractor will not be going back to his practice any time soon. After several months of rehab, though, he will have considerable use of his hands. At the moment, no one can say exactly how much control he will have over them.
One of the hardest parts of attaching new limbs is that nerves must connect properly. Without a solid connection, the hand is unlikely to perform well. Since the surgery has been deemed successful, the patient and doctors can expect considerable function. The specific level, however, is unknown. Within a few months the doctors should know much more about how well the recovery and rehabilitation processes are continuing.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
