How do Surgeons Perform a Hand Transplant?

A team of surgeons from Kleinert Kutz and Associates and the University of Louisville have performed yet another hand transplant at the Jewish Hospital Hand Care Center. Surgeons document the surgery, which was the facility’s first double hand transplant, by using Twitter, to provide short, real-time updates as the procedure takes place.

Breidenbach said, “The patient’s family is very excited about being able to follow the surgery online instead of occasional updates throughout the surgery by hospital personnel. We want others to follow the surgery as well to understand how it all works, identifying and connecting bones, arteries and veins. Our team has already performed five hand transplants over the past eleven years and we have been reconnecting fingers, hands and arms for more than 50 years.”

“We live in a real-time world today where people want to know what’s happening as it is happening,” said Marty Bonick, president and CEO, Jewish Hospital Medical Campus. “This is a chance for us to tell the world about our latest hand transplant as it happens and also take the mystery out of an innovative procedure.”

To follow the surgery, go to www.twitter.com/jewishhospital

The Composite Tissue Allotransplantation program is a partnership of physicians and researchers at Jewish Hospital Hand Care Center, Kleinert Kutz & Associates, and the University of Louisville. The group developed the pioneering hand transplant procedure. The hand transplant is sponsored by the Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research and Office of Army Research to further research in the composite tissue allotransplantation program.