Emory University Hospital has performed its first hand transplant, replacing the left hand of a 21-year-old college student from the Orlando area, the university announced today.
The young woman, Linda Lu, lost her left hand as a child due to an illness.
The surgery on March 12 lasted 19 hours and involved multiple teams of surgeons, nursing and operating room support staff. A hand transplant, unlike a solid organ transplant, involves multiple tissue — skin, muscle, tendon, bone, cartilage, fat, nerves and blood vessels.
Lu is beginning rehabilitation at Emory and will spend the next three months in Atlanta.
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