Limitations — Within Reach

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Limitations

 

Dr. Dumanian, Chief of Plastic Surgery, explains the differences between distal and high amputation transplantations.

 
 

The hand/arm transplant will not function exactly like your upper limb before your injury or loss.

  • Hand/arm transplant recipients do not gain feeling or function immediately after surgery. Return of feeling and function in the hand/arm after transplant surgery can take months or years.
  • Not everyone will have the same success in regaining hand/arm function or accepting the hand/arm as part of their body and identity.
  • Recipients of below-elbow hand/arm transplants regain sensory and motor function faster than recipients of above-elbow hand/arm transplants. This is because the nerves have a longer distance to grow back and reach the hand in above-elbow transplants than in below-elbow transplants.¹
  • If hand/arm transplant recipients are unable to accept the transplant as part of their own body and self-identity, they may stop taking their anti-rejection medicines, which can lead to the loss of the transplant.2,3
  • Upper limb function is difficult to predict and depends on:
    • The level of the transplant (e.g., below-elbow versus an above-elbow transplant)
    • The health of the recipient
    • The recipient’s participation in and adherence to their recovery regimen (medicine, physical and occupational therapy).
  • Getting a hand/arm transplant will not make a person’s other problems go away. It is important that transplant recipients continue to get regular care after the transplant to address other physical or psychological health issues.

 

“I could do almost everything with my prosthetics. Now I can’t do anything.”
- Jeff Kepner, 38-year-old man who received a double hand/arm transplant

 

 

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