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"All three of our patients, Lindsey, Zion, and Laura, have done well. They have been complex cases and, at times, difficult, but we have an amazing team at Penn Medicine and at the transplant institute, which has made all the difference in the world."
Dr. L. Scott Levin.
Penn Medicine is part of a select group of United States medical centers to establish multidisciplinary programs to perform bilateral hand transplants. The Penn Hand Transplant program was designed to help double-arm or double-hand amputee patients regain mobility and independence.
A hand transplant, unlike a solid organ transplant, involves multiple tissues: skin, muscle, tendon, bone, cartilage, fat, nerves and blood vessels. The first successful operation was performed in France in 1998. Only a few people have received hand transplants, including bilateral (both hands) transplants, around the world.
A joint venture of the departments of Transplant, Orthopaedics and Plastic Surgery, the program works closely with the Gift of Life donor program.
Meet Penn's Hand Transplant multidisciplinary team, which offers a wide-range of skills and knowledge.
Watch a video or read about a patient who underwent a successful hand transplant at Penn Medicine.