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Health

Double hand transplant carried out in the UK for first time

By New Scientist and Press Association

22 July 2016

Chris King after his double hand transplant

Two new hands

Danny Lawson/PA Wire

For the first time in the UK, a person has received a double hand transplant.

Chris King lost both his hands, except his thumbs, in a work accident involving a metal pressing machine three years ago. He has now been given two hands from a donor – an operation that took eight surgeons 12 hours to complete.

Around 80 hand transplants have been performed worldwide, including one previous operation in the UK. The surgery involves joining the recipient arm and donor hand bones together using titanium plates and screws, before connecting tendons, muscles, blood vessels and nerves.

“They look absolutely tremendous,” said King. “They’re my hands. They are really my hands. My blood’s going through them. My tendons are attached. They’re mine.”

Simon Kay led the surgical team at Leeds General Infirmary, and has a waiting list of four other people hoping for hand transplants. When any further operations will take place will depend on the availability of donor hands. “Because hand transplantation is such an unusual thing, people have been slow to donate,” said Kay.

There is no option to donate limbs on the NHS Organ Donation Register, so for each operation specific permission is sought from the families of potential donors after their death. “It’s extraordinarily difficult to ask and extraordinarily difficult to make that decision,” said Kay.

When choosing a match, the main focus is on blood group, skin tone and hand size. But due to the complex nature of the procedure, recipients are also screened for psychological suitability before undergoing the operation.

Read more: Men have hands amputated and replaced with bionic ones

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