First NHS hand transplants to be performed this year
NHS patients in England are to become some of the first in the world to benefit from publicly-funded pioneering hand and upper arm transplants.
NHS England has given the go-ahead for a leading centre at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to begin assessing suitable adult candidates and performing the highly-complex procedure from April.
Hand and upper limb transplant offers patients the only method of reconstruction that looks and functions like a normal hand. Transplanted successfully, the hand will, in time and with expert aftercare, move with strength and dexterity, sense its surroundings, feel warm to the touch and heal itself when injured. More....