There are a significant number of factors to consider when determining who would be an appropriate candidate for a hand/arm transplant. First and foremost, any patient who suffered upper hand/upper extremity amputation following burns, trauma, tumors or congenital deformities is a potential candidate. Listed below are some of the eligibility factors that we consider:
- All patients must be at between 18 and 60 years of age.
- Patients must have a strong motivation to proceed with transplant and accept dedicating at least two years towards extensive post transplant rehabilitation.
- The time between the injury and the transplant must be more than six months, but less than 15 years.
- Patients must report less than optimal outcomes with myoelectric prostheses as evaluated by an experienced occupational therapist during a minimal trial period of six months.
- Patients must be willing to take immunosuppressants – drugs that help prevent rejection of the transplant - for the rest of their lives.
- Women who are pregnant must wait until at least six weeks after the completion of their pregnancy before a transplant can be considered.
For more information about what we are looking for in a hand/arm transplant candidate, please review our Hand Transplant Patient Guide.
Finding a Match
There also are a lot of factors to consider when looking for an appropriate donor, and we work closely with the to help us with this challenging search. Here are just a few of the characteristics that we evaluate:
- Skin color, texture and size of the hand/arm should be similar to that of the patient.
- Time is critical when recovering the hand/arm from a donor, so the donor must be located within a four-hour travel radius of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
- The donor’s family must provide consent. Self consent to organ and tissue donation, such as can be done on a motor vehicle license application, does not apply to hand tissue donation.
For more details about how what we look for in a hand/arm transplant donor, please review our Hand Transplant Patient Guide.
