History of Hand Transplantation
(based primarily on www.handtransplant.org)

 

The history of hand transplantation is a relatively short one; the first successful procedure did not take place until 1998, and since then only about two dozen such operations have been performed. Hand transplantation is still in its experimental stages, and thus each new operation is significant.

 

• 1964—First hand transplant is attempted in Ecuador. Patient is given what by modern standards would be primitive immunosuppressive agents. Graft is rejected within two weeks. Little testing or follow-up to allow for appropriate gain of information from experience.

• 1996—Louisville Hand Transplant Team formed to examine possibility of performing a human hand transplantation.

• 1997—Hand transplantation experiments on large animals begin.

• 1997—International symposium concludes that a human hand transplantation procedure may be attempted.

• September 23, 1998—New Zealander Clint Hallam receives hand transplant in Lyon, France. Hallam had lost his right hand in a sawing accident while in prison years earlier. International team of physicians led by Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard performs the thirteen-hour operation.

Jean-Michel Dubernard, leading physician on the international team that performed the world’s first successful hand transplant.

(Photo courtesy of www.assemblee-nat.fr)

• January 25, 1999—Matthew Scott of Absecon, New Jersey receives the first hand transplant in the United States. Procedure takes place at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky.

Transplanted hand of Matthew Scott, the first patient to undergo this procedure in the U.S.

(Photo courtesy of Jewish Hospital; Kleinert, Kutz and Associates Hand Care Center; and University of Louisville [www.handtransplant.org])

• September 21, 1999—Two single hand transplants performed simultaneously on two males at Nanfang Hospital, Guangzhou, Peoples Republic of China.

• January 12, 2000—A 50-member surgical team led by Jean-Michel Dubernard performs the world’s first double hand transplant in Lyon, France. The procedure takes seventeen hours. The patient, Denis Chatelier, is a 33-year old man whose hands were blown off when a homemade model rocket exploded prematurely. His operation is the first in a series of five double hand transplants that France will use to determine whether the transplantation of limbs and other external multi-tissue organs will become commonplace there.

• January 2000—Two single hand transplants performed in Guazgxi, China.

• March 8, 2000—18-member Austrian surgical team performs the second double hand transplant in the world on Theo Kelz, a 45-year-old man who lost both his hands in a pipe bomb explosion in 1994. The 17-hour procedure takes place at the University Clinic in Innsbruck, Austria. Two groups of physicians worked simultaneously on both hands during the procedure.

• May 18, 2000—World’s first arm and hand transplant performed in Malaysia on a one-month-old baby girl. The patient, Chong Lih Ying, was born with a severely deformed left arm. The donor was her identical twin sister, who died when the two were born. Since the girl received the limb from her identical twin, there was no need for immunosuppressive therapy.

• September 2000—Double hand transplant is performed in Guangzhou, China.

• October 2000—Valter Visigolli, a 35-year-old Italian man, receives a hand transplant in Monza, Italy. Marco Lanzetta, the head of the surgical team, was a part of the team that performed the world’s first successful hand transplant in Lyon.

• January 2001—Double hand transplant performed in Harbin, China.

• February 2, 2001—British surgeons in London amputate Clint Hallam’s transplanted hand, at the patient’s request. It was reported that Hallam had failed to follow the proper regimen of immunosuppressive and physical therapy prescribed by his doctors, leading to its eventual rejection. Illustrated the essential role of strict follow-up therapy in hand transplantation.

Clint Hallam, recipient of the first successful human hand transplant.

(Photo courtesy of www.cnn.com)

• February 16-17, 2001—Second U.S. hand transplant performed at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky.

• October 2001—Single hand transplant performed in Milan, Italy.

• January 2002—Single hand transplant performed in Brussells, Belgium.