Children's Hospital Boston offer hand transplants for children

A hospital in Boston is starting the first world hand transplant program for children and the doctors say no will be long until face transplants and other operations of the radical to improve the appearance and quality of life offered to children, also.

The movement shows increasing willingness to do transplants for improving the lives of the patient rather than to save it as donated hearts, livers and other organs have done in the past. At least 20 faces and hands over 70 have been transplanted in adults, and doctors say it is clear that these operations are safe enough offer to the children in certain cases, too.

"We believe that this is justifiable," said Dr. Amir Taghinia Pediatric program of hand that will lead in the children's Hospital Boston.

"Children potentially will benefit even more from this procedure than adults" because the nerves to grow faster and have more problems of prosthetic hands, he said.

Only hand transplantation is known to they have been performed in a child - a baby in Malaysia in 2000. Because the donor was a twin who died at birth, his sister won't need to take drugs to prevent rejection.

That is the main risk in giving children of hand transplants - immuno-suppressing drugs carry side effects and can increase the risk of cancer in the long run.

However, an independent expert believes that earnings may apply in certain cases.

"We understand more about immune suppression" which is less than a risk to children, said Dr. Simon Horslen, medical director of the liver and transplant program of intestine at Seattle Children's Hospital. "This will never become as an emergency procedure, so that families will have many opportunities to weigh the options."

Also, a hand can be removed if there is rejection, and that would not let the worse son than before the transplant, said Horslen.

Various types of children might be candidates - those who were born without hands, missed them in accidents and children with infections that end requiring damaged hands to be amputated.

Quality of life is a key concern for persons missing arms and hands - prostheses for limbs are not as advanced as the feet and legs. In December, doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore made a transplant double arm for former soldier Brendan Marrocco, who lost all four limbs while serving in Iraq. It was the seventh transplantation of double hand or double arm in the United States

For a child missing to two hands, "quality of life issues are a big thing," said Dr. Douglas Diekema of the Center for Pediatric Bioethics at Hospital child of Seattle and a member of the Ethics Committee of the American Board of Pediatrics.

"In terms of how we relate to the social world, it's all over your face and hands," for a transplant "it is a reasonable thing to offer a family," said.

Children's Hospital Boston plans to perform their first cases of healthy children 10 or both hands are missing.

'' Some of them unable to feed themselves, they can't go to the bathroom, someone needs to help with almost all activities, '' Taghinia, said.

The hospital also will consider missing children a hand that are already taking immune-suppressing drugs due to transplanted organs, or those with only a hand that does not work well.

The hospital will cover the cost of the operation and care for three months later, then ask insurance companies to pay for monitoring and immunosuppression.

___

Online:

Boston's program: http://www.bostonchildrens.org/handtransplant

Support groups: http://www.helpinghandsgroup.org/

and http://www.amputee-coalition.org/

___

Marilynn Marchione can follow at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

Also in HuffPost: