Surgeons use Twitter to document first double hand transplant procedure

Aug 25 2010

A team of surgeons from Kleinert Kutz and Associates and the University of Louisville are preparing to perform yet another hand transplant in the next few hours at the Jewish Hospital Hand Care Center. Surgeons plan to document the surgery, which will be the facility's first double hand transplant, by using Twitter, to provide short, real-time updates as the procedure takes place.

“We live in a real-time world today where people want to know what's happening as it is happening”

Preparations are currently occurring in the operating room. Lead surgeon, Warren C. Breidenbach, M.D., with Kleinert Kutz & Associates, has instructed senior hand fellow Christiana Savvidou, M.D., to document the surgery as it takes place. A laptop just outside the operating suite will be used by Savvidou, who will not be an active participant in the surgery but rather will be focusing on documentation. The team of surgeons will be focused on the surgery as the patient receives the long awaited surgery of a "double" hand transplant.

Breidenbach said, "The patient's family is very excited about being able to follow the surgery online instead of occasional updates throughout the surgery by hospital personnel. We want others to follow the surgery as well to understand how it all works, identifying and connecting bones, arteries and veins. Our team has already performed five hand transplants over the past eleven years and we have been reconnecting fingers, hands and arms for more than 50 years."

"We live in a real-time world today where people want to know what's happening as it is happening," said Marty Bonick, president and CEO, Jewish Hospital Medical Campus. "This is a chance for us to tell the world about our latest hand transplant as it happens and also take the mystery out of an innovative procedure."

To follow the surgery, go to www.twitter.com/jewishhospital. Surgery will begin around 7 p.m. EDT.

The Composite Tissue Allotransplantation program is a partnership of physicians and researchers at Jewish Hospital Hand Care Center, Kleinert Kutz & Associates, and the University of Louisville. The group developed the pioneering hand transplant procedure. The hand transplant is sponsored by the Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research and Office of Army Research to further research in the composite tissue allotransplantation program.