Hand Transplants Successful in GuangzhouA Chinese hospital has successfully conducted hand transplants on two patients, the first two such operations in China.Both patients began to receive treatment separately from the southern city of Guangzhou on September 21 last year. Over 20 experts at the hospital, a branch of the First Medical University of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, spent seven hours on each patient. Both operations were successful. Ten days after the operation, stitches were removed and both patients could again use their right hand to perform routine functions. During the operations, the two patients had two arteries, three veins, four nerves and 16 hamstrings connected. Doctors at the hospital have been observing the two patients for half a year. Transplanting limbs is a difficult operation because the patient will often reject the donor hand. During the past decades, few hospitals have succeeded in such operations. |
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