Historic hand transplant takes a team
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Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee has been with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center since 2002.
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Editor's note: From surgery planning meetings to inside the operating room, the author was given exclusive access to report on the Feb. 5 double hand transplant surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The patient continues his recovery in a regular hospital room.
On Thursday, Feb. 4, the day before the heavy snowfall began, a meeting took place in Pittsburgh to map out a strategy for tackling what would be an epic challenge. But this meeting was not at PennDOT headquarters; it took place inside the Scaife Hall office of W.P. Andrew Lee, chief of the division of plastic surgery at UPMC and leader of the hand transplant program.
A day earlier, Dr. Lee and his team received word from the Center for Organ Recovery and Education that a match may have been found for Chris Pollock, a 41-year-old man who was on the waiting list to receive a bilateral hand transplant. That message launched an intense effort from Dr. Lee, his colleagues in the transplant program, 20 other surgeons, and countless hospital staff, which culminated in the operation on Feb. 5 that gave Mr. Pollock new hands.
Dr. Lee had just arrived in San Antonio that Wednesday night to deliver a presentation the next morning on hand transplantation, when he learned that the potential donor for Mr. Pollock was a good match and that the transplant would likely happen the next day. Finding a match for a hand transplant takes more than just the right blood and tissue types; the donor must be the same gender as the recipient, the hands the same size, and the skin tone similar. In this case, the donor, from West Virginia, met the necessary criteria and the donor's family gave its consent.
Mr. Pollock was instructed to come to UPMC, and Dr. Lee returned to Pittsburgh Thursday morning.
The start time for the transplant was contingent on when the donor's limbs were retrieved. By late Thursday afternoon, that surgery was delayed as it was being coordinated with surgical teams from different parts of the country who were hoping to also transplant the donor's liver, kidneys and a lung to their patients.
Calm despite the uncertainty, Dr. Lee proceeded systematically with planning for the hand transplant. Patience and planning have served him well in his career. Since he came to UPMC from Harvard in 2002, Dr. Lee has overseen the development of a new anti-rejection regimen, launched the hand transplant program, and is in the process of creating a face transplant program. "That's just the way I am," Dr. Lee said of his even-keel demeanor.
First Published February 24, 2010 12:00 am
