An 8-year-old boy holds a mini football in the palm of his hand, gently squeezing it between thumb and fingers, dreaming of the day he can get out on the field and throw a pass. There’s nothing unusual about this scenario, except for one thing: a few weeks ago, this child had no hands.
The world’s first bilateral hand transplant in a child has taken place at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The surgery took more than 12 hours. The team, led by L. Scott Levin, M.D., and Benjamin Chang, M.D., included 12 surgeons, 8 nurses, 4 anesthesiologists and others. Levin and Chang direct the Hand Transplantation Program at CHOP. The recipient, Zion, 8, lost his hands and lower legs at the age of 2 as a result of a life-threatening infection. He also went into kidney failure as a result of the infection. He had a kidney transplant at age 4, with his mother as the donor. Zion takes immunosuppressant drugs because of the kidney transplant. This made him an ideal candidate for hand transplant. After more than 18 months of evaluation and preparation, Zion was listed for donor hands.
This field of transplant surgery is called vascularized composite allotransplantation.
