World
Double arm transplant success
Friday, 1 August 2008 16:37German doctors have succeeded in transplanting two complete arms onto a 54-year-old man.
The hospital has described the double transplant as the world's first operation of this kind.
During 15 hours of surgery, a team of 40 medics attached the arms to a farmer who lost both his arms in an accident six years ago.
Advertisement
The hospital has reported that the patient is well.
Doctors said one of the main difficulties for full-arm transplants was finding donors as people find it more acceptable to donate a relative's internal organs than whole limbs.
In 2005, French doctors performed the world's first partial face transplant on a 38-year old woman, who had her nose, cheeks, mouth, lips and chin replaced by donor tissue after they were torn off by her dog.
