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The First Belgian Hand Transplantation—37 Month Term Results

From the Department of Orthopaedics –Traumatology, Department of Physiotherapy, Laboratory for Functional Anatomy, Department of Psychiatry, Department of Nephrology, Erasme University Hospital, Medical School of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, and Department of Plastic Surgery, OLV Lourdes Ziekenhuis, V Waregem, Belgium

Correspondence: Corresponding author. Prof. F. Schuind, MD, PhD, Erasme University Hospital, Medical School of the Universitélibre de Bruxelles, Route de Lennik 808, B-1070 Bruxelles, Belgium. Tel.: +32 2 555 36 45; fax: +32 2 555 83 60. E-mail: fschuind{at}ulb.ac.be

The first Belgian hand transplant was a 22 year-old man with a traumatic amputation of his dominant hand at the junction of the middle and distal thirds of the forearm. The donor and recipient had three HLA mismatches. The cross-match was negative. The total ischaemic time was slightly over 6 hours. Immunosuppression included antithymocyte globulins at induction and tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil and prednisolone as induction and maintenance therapy. There has been no episode of rejection. The only significant complications, except for transient hyperglycaemia, were psychological. At 37 months post-transplantation, the patient has fully incorporated his transplant into his self-image and is back at work. He has good sensibility (two-point discrimination of 6 mm at the thumb and index finger pulps), acceptable wrist and finger motion with functioning intrinsic muscles. According to Chen’s criteria, the result is good to excellent.

Key Words: hand transplantation

Journal of Hand Surgery (British and European Volume), Vol. 31, No. 4, 371-376 (2006)
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHSB.2006.01.003


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