De lo humano a lo transhumano: Bilateral hand transplant

Last week, a team of more than 40 surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, residents, radiologists and physician assistants of Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), worked for more than 12 hours to perform a bilateral hand transplant for Richard Mangino, 65, of Revere. Mangino, a quadruple amputee, lost his arms below the elbows and legs below the knees after contracting sepsis in 2002.

The transplant involved multiple tissues including skin, tendons, muscles, ligaments, bones and blood vessels on both the left and right forearms and hands. In August 2010, BWH announced the development of a hand transplant program. The BWH team performed its first bilateral hand transplant in May 2011. Consent for the donation of the hands was obtained by New England Organ Bank staff after conversations with the donor family. Registering as an organ and tissue donor on a driver’s license is not accepted as consent for this type of donation; family consent is required (fuente)

Hand transplantation surgery, the transfer of the hand(s) from a deceased human donor to a patient with amputation of one or both hands, is an experimental reconstructive procedure that has the potential to significantly improve the lives of hand amputees.

In early October 2011, a Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) team of more than 40 surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, residents, radiologists, and physician assistants worked for more than 12 hours to perform a bilateral (double) hand transplant for Richard Mangino, 65, of Revere, MA. Mangino, a quadruple amputee, lost his arms below the elbows and legs below the knees after contracting sepsis in 2002. The transplant involved a composite of multiple tissues, including skin, tendons, muscles, ligaments, bones, and blood vessels on both the left and right forearms and hands.

The BWH hand transplant team, representing a wide variety of medical and surgical specialties, now hopes to build upon this success to provide other amputee patients with the significant benefits of hand transplantation. Toward this goal, BWH is actively seeking qualified candidates for our hand transplant research study. Our team will be studying a small group of people to learn more about how to advance the science of hand transplantation, how to support and limit transplant rejection issues, and how people do after hand transplantation.

We describe hand transplant surgery as a life-giving procedure because it has the potential to dramatically improve, i.e., restore, both a patient’s mental and physical health and his/her ability to function and integrate in society. However, as with any other type of organ transplantation, this improvement will require the patient to make a lifetime commitment to taking medications that suppress the body’s immune system.

Functionally, hand transplant surgery can provide a patient with new hands that, after extensive rehabilitation, allow him/her to perform daily activities and, in most cases, return to work. Furthermore, the ability to restore a near-normal aesthetic appearance of the hand(s) can lead to tremendous psychological benefits, including elevated confidence and mood.