Abstract
Since 1998, 40 hand transplants (HTs) in 29 patients have been performed in countries such as France, United States (US), China, Austria, Malaysia, Italy, Belgium, Poland, and Spain. Now, with recent improvements in immunosuppression, the clinical applicability may expand, and the ethical obstacles may soon be overcome, allowing multiple US institutions to perform hand allotransplantation. Therefore, the objective of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive review of hand transplantation and to assist multidisci-plinary teams in creating an Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol for their hospital. Using a variety a published reports, a comprehensive literature review of hand transplantation was performed in May 2008. Due to its inherent complexity, hand transplantation should be attempted only at institutions capable of orchestrating a specialized multidisciplinary team, and the IRB protocol used should be extremely detailed and individualized. Without question, further research is warranted, and surgeons and scientists alike have yet to identify the clinical role of hand transplantation.
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