Hand transplantation: comparisons and observations of the first four clinical cases.

Twenty, 15, and 8 months after the first four successful human hand transplant procedures were performed in Lyon (France), Louisville (U. S.), and Guangzhou (China), the transplant teams convened in Louisville, Kentucky, to share their experiences at the Second International Symposium on Composite Tissue Allotransplantation. This article presents reconstructive and immunological data from these landmark procedures in tabular format, in an attempt to answer some key questions about early outcomes of clinical hand transplantation. On the basis of these data, the initial outcomes of the first four hand transplants are encouraging and warrant proceeding with additional hand transplantations.