Experience of a Brazilian surgeon in a hand transplant case: "What I saw, what I learned"

The Louisville VCA (Vascularized Composite Allograft) Program is one of the largest hand transplant programs in the world. During my hand surgery fellowship at the Christine M. Kleinert Institute, the team performed the eighth hand transplant on the seventh recipient in Louisville. The Louisville VCA Program has done 9 hand transplants in 8 recipients with one bilateral case. Among these are the first 5 hand transplant cases in the United States. The first case was done in 1999 and has the World's longest follow-up. The seventh case was performed in a 36-year-old male on July 10, 2011. The result achieved so far can be considered excellent with a very good patient satisfaction. There is a large multidisciplinary team involved in such procedures with all members playing a crucial role for the achievement of the best result possible. The present paper focuses on the surgical procedure for the seventh recipient, which was unique due to the level of amputation of the recipient's hand, with preservation of nerve to the thumb.