Slashdot Mirror
World's First Quadruple Limb Transplant Fails
New submitter smoothjazz writes "The world's first quadruple limb transplant failed, according to Hacettepe University. Doctors had to remove the arms and legs that had been transplanted last Friday onto Sevket Çavdar, 27, because of tissue incompatibility. From the article: 'Doctors had first removed one leg from the patient after his heart and vascular system failed to sustain the limb and then the other leg and two arms. "The science council (of the hospital) decided to remove the organs one by one due to additional metabolic complications in the following process," the hospital said in a statement.
"Our patient is now in the intensive care unit. The critical process is still continuing," it added.'"
Anyone else notice the similarity between "Çavdar" an "cadaver", in a story that already parallel's a certain work by Mary Shelley in a number of ways.
Better known as 318230.
I also noticed that the summary has "evket" while the article has "Sevket". Is it yet another character that Slashdot's administrators refuse to allow in Slashdot's character set?
Since when is an arm or a leg considered an ORGAN?
great, now I've got Edgar Winter stuck in my head.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Limb transplants are nothing new: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_transplantation
Even as a non-doctor I realize that adding that much body mass to Bob or Art or whatever his name was would stress his system that wasn't used to it.
After doing some arm cardio for a while with a stable patient probably a year or more later, then maybe legs. It would probably take at least that long to find the next donor anyway.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
I wonder if it would have had a higher chance of success if they had only transplanted one or two limbs? Seems like it would have been less strain on his vascular system. Anyways...very sad.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
His last words to the doctor, "All right, we'll call it a draw."
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
...but the patient is completely stumped.
They can repair the gross nerves now... Of course in limbs they are fairly spread out.... At least enough to gain some mobility.
You're not going to play piano, bit at least you can feed youself and wipe your own ass again!
I'm curious how they thought the heart was going to support the limbs... That's like 80% increase in body mass when the body had adjusted to not havin any limbs. Would you even have enough blood in your body to pump??? Had they done one it probably woul have worked... The problem is how to keep te others alive until they can be attached... Otherwise 4different doners would be even worse.
The future is in the big black robot suit....
I hear they're charging him an arm and a leg for the procedure.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Coincidentally, patient's name is Bob.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Doctors had to remove the arms and legs that had been transplanted last Friday onto evket Ãavdar, 27, because of tissue incompatibility.
I look forward to the day where limbs and organs can be lab-grown from a patient's own cells and we won't have to worry about tissue rejection. While sad, I hope these sort of stories can at least help to inform the public of the promise that tissue engineering holds. The overwhelming majority of deaths in the US are a result of organ failure, whether due to cancer, heart disease, or other chronic illness. The ability to replace organs and tissue with their lab-grown counterparts would be a huge boost to both life expectancy and quality of life for a significant portion of the population.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
They were advertising for volunteers to donate enough blood for that guy. What are the psychological effects of having more "body" that is not you, than is you? There was even an organ transplant of the more private parts, but the man's wife has psychological objections after the transplant.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
removed one leg from the patient after his heart and vascular system failed to sustain the limb and then the other leg and two arms. "The science council (of the hospital) decided to remove the organs one by one
Wow. From a quick scan of the summary, it sounds like they took out everything but the guy's chassis. Leg, leg, arm, arm, and then the next sentence about removing organs one by one? Can his family visit him in the head museum?
Ask me about my sig!
And they've been reattaching severed limbs since the '70s. My friend's dad had his arm reattached after a boating accident circa '76. He was one of the first.
Re-attaching someone's own tissue, I think, doesn't have anywhere near the challenges of a limb transplant. I have a BK leg amputation, and have been wearing a prosthetic sine 1995. I asked the ortho surgeon at the time whether or not a transplant was viable, and back then the answer was 'no'.
Having read this article, I have started to reach out once again to see what the possibilities are.
m
In the immortal words of Socrates, who said; 'I drank what?'
What do you think nerve repair means? If you think it means using very tiny thread to suture the nerve sheath, while being careful not to suture the inner portion, then that's exactly what it means. The nerve itself will knit on its own. It's been done for a long time. You can find surgical manuals from the 30s that document proper nerve suture techniques. The first documented nerve suture was performed in 600 AD (though I can't find reference to the effectiveness of it). Microsurgery techniques have made great strides since then. And I believe that the major nerves will be in a larger bundle for an above-elbow arm transplant compared with a hand transplant, so this situation is actually easier than the hand transplant cases (though peripheral nerves are another story altogether). At any rate, nerves also regrow all on their own, though for an arm it can take 2-3 years of slow progress. There have been several above-elbow arm transplants that resulted (after 2 years recovery) in full elbow mobility, limited but useful sensation, and extension and flexing of fingers and thumb. (Citation for one such transplant, full article may be behind paywall).
The problem with nerve regrowth in transplants is that sometimes they just don't, though in 2009 French doctors discovered that they can trigger regrowth by manual stimulation of the motor cortex using magnetic impulses. The theory being that nerves that aren't being used by the brain anymore won't regrow, so if the amputation was not recent, the nerves won't grow without a jump start straight to the brain.
Above elbow/knee transplants can also have the problem that that much vascular bone marrow greatly increases the chance of graft-versus-host. Though apparently it can also lead to the opposite result, with the host accepting the graft tissue more readily.
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
I agree, the proposal to do it one limb at a time, presumably from four different donors due to the amount of time between operations, isn't very feasible.
However it seems like starting with two arms would be the way to go. First because they draw less blood than the legs, so there would be less for the vascular system to adapt to. Second because if i was a quadriplegic and had the choice of getting just my arms back or just my legs back, i'd definitely opt for the arms. If you've just got arms you can always use a wheelchair to get yourself around. If you've just got legs... well i guess you could do a few "manual" tasks using your toes, but it doesn't seem like the optimum way to do things.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
The OP's question was about nerve reattachment, which is the same whether it's your own or someone else's.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
It is reported by Turkish news that the guy just passed away.
The patient has passed away according to reports.
Was it too much to take on at once? I'm not referring to four limbs on one patient, I'm referring to four limbs on one patient PLUS a face transplant the same day by the same team.
"Meanwhile, the face transplant patient, who was operated on by the same team of surgeons on the same day, was reported to be in good condition. "
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/quadruple-limb-transplant-patient-dies.aspx?pageID=238&nID=14816&NewsCatID=341