Hand Transplant Program
The Emory Hand Transplant Program
Emory University and the Emory Transplant Center recently established a novel transplant program to evaluate hand transplantation as a potential therapy for replacement after loss of one or both hands. The study is open to those with interest in a potential hand transplant who have specifically lost one or both hands below the elbow. Hand transplantation, like other forms of organ transplantation, requires a major surgical procedure followed by drug therapy for life after the procedure to maintain the function of the transplanted hand(s).
The Emory hand transplant program is under the direction of Dr. Linda Cendales, who is the only surgeon with formal training in each of hand, microsurgery, and transplant surgery in the United States. In addition to the clinical study of hand transplantation, Dr. Cendales established a comprehensive program at Emory to systematically study Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation. VCA is the term used to describe transplantation of multiple tissues (skin, muscle, bone, cartilage, nerve, tendon, vessel) as a functional unit. Thus, in addition to her experience with clinical hand transplantation, Dr. Cendales studies novel immunosuppression regimens specific to VC A in a large animal model and has worked on a classification system for the severity of skin rejection after vascularized composite allotransplantation.
For more information about this clinical research study, please visit clinicaltrials.gov.
