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August 12, 2008 10:54 PM
MUNICH - German doctors have succeeded
in transplanting two complete arms onto a 54-year old man in
what their hospital said was 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.
The patient was well, the hospital said on Friday.
"Before the operation, we had to describe to him that he
would have to deal with the fact he'd have somebody else's
hands," said Edgar Biemer from the hospital in the southern
city of Munich, where the operation took place last week.
"When he woke up he looked at his hands and (went): 'Very
good'," Biemer, one of the doctors in charge of the operation,
told Reuters television.
Biemer said that so far, only transplants of lower arms had
taken place. One of the main difficulties for full-arm
transplants was finding donors.
"Already, the number of donors willing to donate their
internal organs is declining," he said.
"(On top of that), it is more acceptable for people to have
a relative's kidneys taken out, than for them to have an entire
leg, hand or their face cut off."
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.
(Reuters Life!)
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