Six months after receiving the first transplant of the hand of the world, 48 years, Clint Hallam of New Zealand has a strong grip and feel in several fingers. His intervention was successful, Hallam doctors report in this week's issue of The Lancet .
The operation of Hallam helped fuel a growing demand for limb transplants, said Earl Owen, a transplant surgeon at Microsearch Foundation of Australia in Sydney. Some amputees adjust well to prosthetics, but others feel incomplete without flesh and bone member. Because doctors have reattached the severed hands successfully, Owen said that securing a share of donors could also be possible. September 23, 1998, Owen and an international team including Jean-Michel Dubernard surgeon at the Edouard Herriot Hospital in Lyon, France, transplanted to the right arm of Hallam, who lost his right hand a man of brain death 41 years hand in a 1984 circular saw accident when he was in prison.
To prevent rejection of the transplant, doctors gave Hallam drugs that suppress the immune system. These drugs increase the risk of skin cancer, diabetes, and a type of lymphoma, but Owen says only significant side effect of Hallam was until now a "touch of diabetes," which went away once his medication doses have been adjusted. His arm shows no rejection of the new hand sign, and the nerves that connect the two began to regenerate. Hallam now the feeling in his hand two fingers and the backs of his fingers, and muscle activity is constantly improving.
The team expects life with the hand of someone else could cause psychological problems, particularly because-- unlike a transplanted kidney or heart - a member is always visible . But Owen says that Hallam seems to have fully accepted the hand than his from the start. Such an attitude is essential, says transplant surgeon Jon Jones of the University of Louisville in Kentucky, a member of the US team that performed a second transplant hand in January. This is also considered a success, but Jones warns that it is too early to put too much faith in the operation. "It could be that we were lucky the first two times," he said. Both European and American teams are planning several operations. "If we can provide immunosuppressants that have minimal risk, this operation could become widespread," predicted Jones.
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