The UCLA Health System has launched the new UCLA Hand Transplantation Program, the first of its kind on the West Coast and only the fourth such center in the United States.
The program will help those who have suffered the traumatic loss of a hand or forearm and allow them to regain function and improve their quality of life. Qualified candidates are now being sought for a clinical study of the procedure.
“Over the past decade, the exciting field of hand transplantation has resulted in excellent outcomes for patients, and we are excited to bring this program to UCLA,” said Dr. Kodi Azari, surgical director of the hand transplantation program and an associate professor in the UCLA Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the UCLA Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
The first hand transplant was performed in 1998 in France, with the United States following suit the next year. To date, nine patients have received hand transplants in the United States; two of these surgeries were double hand transplants.
Azari was one of the lead surgeons on five of these successful hand transplants, including the first double hand transplant and the first arm transplant.
“Many patients who have lost one or both hands find that prosthetic devices are not enough to help them get back the life they had enjoyed previously,” said Azari, who came to UCLA in November 2008 from the University of Pittsburgh. “In these cases, hand transplantation can offer a unique opportunity to regain dynamic function and the feel of a real human hand.”
The new program is a partnership between UCLA’s transplantation services and its hand surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, orthopaedic surgery, psychiatry, pathology, anesthesia, internal medicine, radiology, neurology, ethics and rehabilitation services.
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