Introducing world’s first hand transplant program for children
Boston Children’s is an innovator in the field of pediatric limb transplantation
This past summer Boston Children’s Hospital started the world’s first hand transplant program for pediatric patients. This research-based program will offer bi-lateral hand transplants for children without two functioning hands due to devastating infections or accidents or congenital abnormalities.
The program’s surgical director and principal investigator Amir Taghinia, MD has envisioned a program of this nature for years, but until recently there were too many variables associated with the procedure for it to be considered safe for children. But as the surgical and medical therapies used in transplant medicine improved, he knew the time had come to make his dream a reality.
“Over the years, I worked with many children who had hand conditions that just couldn’t be helped with traditional surgery, but I still felt compelled to help them,” he says. “Children have a natural ability to quickly regain function and regrow nerves, so when transplant medicine had evolved to the point it is now I knew the time was right to provide the option to children.”
For more information on hand transplants and the program, please visit www.bostonchildrens.org/handtransplant or call the Hand Transplant Coordinator, Maureen Pimentel, at 1-877-TX4-PEDS (1-877-894-7337).