Nation's 2nd Bilateral Hand Transplant
UPMC Completes Nation’s 2nd Bilateral Hand Transplant
On Feb. 5, 2010, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) treated a third patient with the “Pittsburgh Protocol,” an immune modulation therapy that aims to reduce the risk associated with toxic anti-rejection drugs.
Chris Pollock, a 41-year-old Harrisburg, PA man who lost both hands in a farming accident, is the second person in the nation to receive a bilateral hand transplant and the first to have his entire forearm replaced.Although other surgeons from around the world have performed hand transplants successfully, they have used a conventional protocol of multiple immunosuppressive medications to prevent rejection of the grafts, increasing the risk of diabetes, infections, hypertension and other disorders.
In contrast, surgeons at UPMC have implemented a two-phase protocol that involves initial antibody treatment followed by donor bone marrow cell therapy. The goal is not merely to suppress the immune system, but to change the way it functions. Under the protocol, Mr. Pollock, who lost his hands two years ago, received antibodies to help overcome the initial overwhelming immune response. That will be followed by a bone marrow infusion from the hand donor within 15 days after the surgery. Hand transplant patients are treated with tacrolimus, a drug that was first used in liver transplants by UPMC’s Thomas E. Starzl, M.D., Ph.D., more than two decades ago to prevent graft rejection.
UPMC, the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research and the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) are funding the hand transplant study. Surgeons performed the first unilateral hand transplant at UPMC on March 14, 2009, and the first bilateral hand transplant in the U.S. on May 4, 2009.
Learn more about the hand transplant program, and view photos and video of Mr. Pollock’s surgery and hand therapy.
