Hand Transplant Program
Welcome to the Hand Transplant Program of the Emory Transplant Center, located in Atlanta, Georgia. This program was established by Linda Cendales, MD to evaluate hand transplantation as a therapeutic option after loss of one or both hands. Dr. Cendales is the only surgeon in the U.S. trained in both hand microsugery and transplantation.
In addition to the clinical study of hand transplantation, Dr. Cendales has established a comprehensive program at Emory to study Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation (VCA). VCA is the 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 VCA in a large animal model and has worked on a classification system for the severity of skin rejection after VCA.
Emory's hand transplant program is currently open to those who have lost one or both hands below the elbow and are interested in a potential hand transplant. Hand transplantation, like other forms of organ transplantation, is a major surgical procedure that requires lifelong medication to prevent rejection of the transplanted hand(s).
For more information about this clinical research study, please visit clinicaltrials.gov.
Background
In 1999, Dr. Linda Cendales helped organize the team that performed the first U.S. hand transplant in Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Cendales is a pioneer in Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation (VCA), the transplantation of limbs and other body parts. VCA continues to advance by leaps and bounds, with recent reports from around the world of transplants involving donors' faces, knees, trachea and even a uterus, performed in 2000 in Saudi Arabia.
