[AMP-L] U.C.L.A. Hand Transplant Program Needs Volunteers

[Wayne Renardson]

UCLA says it is launching a hand transplant study and is looking for 
amputees, including war veterans, willing to undergo the experimental 
surgery.

The clinical trial program is only the fourth of its kind in the 
United States.

"Many patients who have lost one or both hands find that prosthetic 
devices are not enough to help them get back the life they had 
enjoyed previously," Dr. Kodi Azari, the program's surgical director, 
said earlier this week. "In these cases, hand transplantation can 
offer a unique opportunity to regain dynamic function and the feel of 
a real human hand."

The procedure does not restore full hand strength and sensation, but 
Azari said it may enable people to perform many tasks.

"It's never like your (old) hand, unfortunately, yet we have found 
really quite remarkable results," Azari said.

The rest of the story here: 

<http://spedr.com/1718i>

Wayne R