Burns victim receives new hands in rare transplant

LONDON - A burns victim in the US has received a new pair of hands in a rare double transplant operation that lasted 18 hours.

The surgery took place Thursday at the Jewish Hospital in Louisville in the US, where the world’s first successful single hand transplant was performed in 1999.

Doctors said the man will have more feeling in his fingers than previous hand transplant patients, reports the Daily Mail.

A team of six hand surgeons, one anaesthetist, one nurse and five extra medical staff worked on the unidentified patient on a rotating basis.

Lead surgeon Warren Breidenbach said doctors were able to put some of the patient’s existing nerves into hands from a donor.

The patient was unable to do simple tasks like taking keys out of his pocket because he hands had been damaged badly.

Surgeons removed dead hand tissue from the patient in preparation for the donor hands and five hours later attached the bones of the new hands to the patient with plates and screws.

Once the arteries and veins were attached, the team completed nerve repairs before sewing the new appendages shut and bandaging them up. They finished around 8.30 p.m.

The team expects the wounds to take about six weeks to heal but said it will be several months before any sensation returns to the hands.

As with any transplant, there is a risk of rejection and the patient will need to take anti-rejection medications for the rest of his life.