The clinical research program will start by serving children at least 10 years old who have lost both hands to infections or accidents, though the program will also consider children with one poorly functioning hand.
Both the child and the child’s guardians will need to approve the transplant; Boston Children’s has drawn up a special contract in simple English to help the potential hand recipients understand the process and its potential risks.
The first successful hand transplant for adults occurred in 1999. Since then, there have been more than 70 hand transplants worldwide. In 2000, a baby girl in Malaysia received a hand transplant from her identical twin, who died at birth. Because the girls were identical twins, no immunosuppressive drugs were necessary.
Immunosuppressive therapy is required for transplants from genetically non-identical donors. While this therapy comes with significant risks for the children involved, physicians are hopeful that the rapid regenerative capacity of the young will make the hand transplants highly successful.
With new hands, the program physicians expect the children to experience and increase in quality of life, as they will be able to perform tasks such as dressing, feeding and bathing themselves.
World’s First Children’s Hand Transplant Program Opens at Boston Children’s Hospital
After a two-year review, the Institutional Review Board at the Boston Children’s Hospital approved the hand transplant program, the first in the world of its kind, according to a Boston Globe report .
