The international registry on hand and composite tissue transplantation

TLDR: Hand transplantation is feasible with a high success rate and satisfactory functional outcome, and patients developed protective sensibility, 90% of them developed tactile sensibility and 72% also a discriminative sensibility.

Abstract: The first hand transplantation was performed in Lyon, France, on 23 September 1998 by an international team of surgeons [1]. Since then, hand transplantation programmes have been launched in the United States, Austria, China, Italy, Belgium and Poland [2, 3, 4, 5, 6], and the teams felt the need to create a worldwide registry to provide a basis for cooperation and to share their experiences (Fig. 1). Since May 2002, all groups [7] performing hand transplantations have supplied detailed information to the International Registry on Hand and Composite Tissue Transplantation (IRHCTT; www.handregistry.com). Follow-up period ranged from 2 to 85 months (Table 1). A good number of composite tissue transplantations other than the hand have been performed around the world in the period 1994–2006, including the femoral diaphysis, the knee, the larynx, the uterus, the abdominal wall, a lower limb in conjoined twins, and most recently, the face in two centres.