Expertise, innovation and research
Mayo Clinic, with transplant services in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota, performs more transplants than does any other medical center in the world. Mayo Clinic's integrated teams of surgeons, doctors, transplant nurses, pharmacists, social workers and others work together to manage every aspect of your transplant, from planning of transplant options through post-transplant care.
Mayo Clinic doctors have expertise and experience in many areas of hand transplantation. Our experts actively study and practice hand transplantation techniques. Advances in immunosuppressive drug therapy have allowed doctors to perform complex, multiple-tissue-type transplants (vascularized composite allotransplantation), such as hand transplants, in which surgeons reattach skin, bone, muscles, nerves, tendons and blood vessels simultaneously. Mayo Clinic researchers in the Mayo Clinic Transplant Center seek new ways to treat people who need transplants of all types.
Multidisciplinary team
Mayo Clinic doctors have extensive experience and expertise in many specialties. Mayo Clinic doctors and other staff in many specialties work as a multidisciplinary team to provide your treatment, based on your individual condition.
Mayo Clinic doctors trained in transplantation, hand surgery, plastic surgery, microsurgery, nervous system conditions (neurologists), mental health conditions (psychologists and psychiatrists), skin conditions (dermatology), immune system disorders, infectious diseases, hand rehabilitation and other specialties may be involved in your care. Many other healthcare professionals may be involved in your hand transplant care.
Expertise in microsurgery
Mayo Clinic doctors trained in hand and reconstructive surgery have experience and expertise performing many complex surgeries, including microsurgery. Surgeons perform microsurgery in hand transplant, face procedures and other procedures.
Microsurgery involves extensive training, as it involves very small surgical areas and small blood vessels and nerves. To perform microsurgery, surgeons use microscopes to magnify the surgical area and use small surgical tools. Imaging specialists (radiologists) work closely with surgeons before surgery and prepare images of the surgical area.
In microsurgery for the hand, foot or other parts of the body, surgeons conduct procedures involving small blood vessels and nerves. Surgeons also have experience using microsurgery to perform composite tissue graft transfers and replant fingers or toes that have been amputated.