Louisville VCA Team Performs Another Hand Transplant - Archived

Louisville VCA Team performs another Hand Transplant
Kentucky man recovering at Jewish Hospital

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Louisville Vascularized Composite Allograft (VCA) surgical team performed yet another hand transplant on a male patient during a 16-hour procedure on November 25. The Louisville VCA program is a partnership of physicians, researchers and healthcare providers from Jewish Hospital, part of KentuckyOne Health; the Christine M. Kleinert Institute for Hand and Microsurgery (CMKI); the Kleinert Kutz Hand Care Center; and the University of Louisville.

WHAT: 
Hand transplant medical team to discuss surgery and clinical trial of new cell-based therapy that will help prevent rejection. Cardiovascular Innovation Institute joins team to advance clinical implementation of regenerative medicine therapies.

WHEN:    Wednesday, November 26, 2014
                2 p.m.
 
WHERE:

Jewish Hospital Rudd Heart & Lung Center
Hank Wagner Conference Center, 16^th floor
200 Abraham Flexner Way
Louisville, Kentucky

SPEAKERS:  

• Joseph Gilene, president, Jewish Hospital and downtown Louisville market leader at KentuckyOne Health
• Joseph Kutz, MD, Clinical Trial co-primary investigator, hand surgeon, Kleinert, Kutz Hand Care Center
• Michael Marvin, MD, Clinical Trial co-primary investigator, director of Transplantation at Jewish Hospital,  
        associate professor of Surgery at the University of Louisville
• Christina Kaufman, PhD, executive director, Christine M. Kleinert Institute for Hand & Microsurgery
• Stuart K. Williams, II, PhD, director, Bioficial Organs Program, Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, Jewish
        Hospital Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Innovation, University of Louisville
• Paul O’Flynn, CEO, Kentuckiana Organ Donor Affiliates

BACKGROUND: The Louisville VCA team was awarded $850,000 to fund a clinical trial of a new treatment that will help prevent rejection in hand transplantation. The funding comes as part of the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) research program. AFIRM II is a five-year, $75 million Department of Defense-funded project that will focus on applying regenerative medicine to battlefield injuries. Results of this trial will be far-reaching and benefit not only military patients, but all hand transplant recipients.

The Louisville team developed the pioneering hand transplant procedure and has performed hand transplants on nine patients since 1999. The clinical trial is led by primary investigator Joseph Kutz, MD, with research at the CMKI and the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, a partnership of Jewish Hospital and the University of Louisville. Funding for the surgical procedure was provided by the Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s Foundation, part of KentuckyOne Health.

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