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Hand Transplantation: Is It Worth A Lifetime Of Immunosuppression?

There was a lovely news article on the first California hand transplant patient in the LA Times earlier this week:  Hand transplant patient speaks (bold emphasis is mine)

Emily Fennell, 26, last month became the first person in California to have the revolutionary surgery. Six weeks and many hours of therapy later, she has no regrets. …..

On March 5, Fennell became the first person to undergo a hand transplant in California and the 13th nationwide to have the revolutionary surgery. . ….

“It’s crazy how good it looks,” she said at her occupational therapy session one morning last week at UCLA, where she spends about eight hours a day working on learning how to move her new hand and fingers. “I knew the match wouldn’t be perfect, but if you didn’t know what happened, you’d think I just had some kind of orthopedic surgery.”  ….

Doctors told her that the biggest risk from the surgery comes from the side effects of lifelong use of strong immunosuppressant medications, which can cause high blood pressure, kidney or liver damage, elevated cancer risks and lower resistance to infections. …..

“I decided the benefits were worth those risks,” Fennel said. She has adjusted well to the medications.  …. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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