Surgeons test-drive the amputation of the future with a mail-order limb, rerouted nerve, and prosthetic hand that grips like the real thing

On this November morning, Souza and Walter Reed’s director of surgery, Dr. Kyle Potter, have met Carty at a surgical center outside Boston to invent a new operation, a way to perform arm amputations that might allow patients to move their prosthetic hands more like real ones.

The arms belonged to someone else. Grueling work made them his own

Patients go into their surgeries fully aware that the procedure is experimental and might not succeed, though 95 percent of the transplanted limbs have had good outcomes, said Dr. Vijay Gorantla, administrative medical director of the Reconstructive Transplant Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Fewer than 10 of the transplants have had to be removed.

The arms belonged to someone else. Grueling work made them his own

Patients go into their surgeries fully aware that the procedure is experimental and might not succeed, though 95 percent of the transplanted limbs have had good outcomes, said Dr. Vijay Gorantla, administrative medical director of the Reconstructive Transplant Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Fewer than 10 of the transplants have had to be removed.

Amid success, hand transplantation remains controversial

Surgeons discuss recipient results, complications and new developments in immunosuppression.

Double hand transplant patient: 'I wrote a thank-you letter to my surgeon'

King lost both his hands, except the thumbs, in an accident involving a metal-pressing machine at his workplace in Doncaster four years ago. Consultant plastic surgeon Prof Simon Kay, who carried out the operation and two other hand transplants, believes the operation could become as routine as a kidney transplant.

Face and Hand Transplants Raise Ethical Questions for Living Donors

These new kinds of organ transplants are called vascularized composite allographs or VCAs. While they could be life-enhancing for people with congenital malformations or who lost body parts through trauma or war, there are many unknowns. Thus, as someone who researches ethical issues in organ transplantation, I have been grappling with the ethics of VCAs, which are in need of greater oversight.

I Can Do Absolutely Nothing.’ The First American With a Double Hand Transplant Wants Them Removed

In medicine, someone always has to be first. Seven years ago, that person was Jeff Kepner, now 64, who became the first person to receive a double hand transplant in the United States. The milestone made headlines: “A Touching Tale of a Life Changed,” read one from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. But Kepner’s transplanted hands have never worked, and today they remain completely non-functional. If he could, Kepner says he would have them removed, he tells TIME in an exclusive interview.

I Got A Hand Transplant: 5 Horrifying Realities

Newspapers raved about the story of Jane Halston, the young mother who had lost an unacceptable number of limbs and became one of the first people in the world to receive a successful hand transplant. However, it wasn't all sunshine and thumb wars.

Talking Hand Transplants With a Surgeon

Composite tissue transplants like the hand and the face — which involve multiple types of tissue, such as skin, fat, muscle, bone, veins and arteries – are distinct from solid organ transplants. We’ve actually had the technical prowess to do this for 35 or 36 years, since the advent of microsurgery. But what’s advanced in leaps and bounds is the medical technology in terms of the medications to give people to prevent rejection. Medical knowledge has caught up with surgical knowledge.

The Hard Work Of Waiting For A Hand Transplant

Hand transplants are really complicated. Beyond the surgery itself, Kevin could end up worse off if he never learns how to use his new fingers or his body rejects the hand. And the anti-rejection drug he'll have to take for the rest of his life comes with side effects.

The Kid Who Got a Double Hand Transplant Can Now Swing a Baseball Bat

Eighteen months after surgery, doctors say the world's first double hand transplant in a child can be considered a success. Zion Harvey, who was eight years old when the operation took place, can now write, dress and feed himself, and even throw a baseball, including opening pitches for both the Orioles and the Dodgers.

The Kid Who Got a Double Hand Transplant Can Now Swing a Baseball Bat

Eighteen months after surgery, doctors say the world's first double hand transplant in a child can be considered a success. Zion Harvey, who was eight years old when the operation took place, can now write, dress and feed himself, and even throw a baseball, including opening pitches for both the Orioles and the Dodgers.

The Surgeon Who Helped Revolutionize Hand Transplants

Dr. Kodi Azari has traveled the U.S. as a lead surgeon in five hand transplants. Hand transplant recipients have usually lost their hands before surgery, but Azari laid the groundwork for a new kind of procedure...