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A Case of nerves!
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In November 2000 surgeons at Memorial Hermann children’s hospitals in Houston, Texas were literally working on a case of nerves .They performed the first neither living -do-nor nerve transplant in an 8-months old boy who had a brachial plexus injury at birth .previous nerve transplants had used nerves taken from cadavers. As a result of the injury the child had no sensation or movement in left shoulder .in the 8-hour long procedure, Nerves that had been removed from the leg of the child’s mother were transplanted into the child’s left arm.
A week before the transplant, the surgical team removed the surreal nerves from the mother’s calves and stored them in preservation solution. Simultaneously, the child was started on FK-506,which is an anti-rejection drugs as well as a nerve growth factor, to enable therapeutic levels of the drugs to be achieved in the blood by the time of transplantation.
The nerves from the mother will not be instrumental in restoring function but will serve as conduits through which the child’s own nerves can regenerate and travel to their muscle and skin targets. The transplant team headed by scottGruber, MD expects that within 9-12 months, the child’s nerves would have regenerated sufficiently to reach the muscles .thereby restoring sensation and motor activity to the entire arm.
The child is being given low doses of immunosuppressant that will be discontinued once the nerves regenerate.
Available at:
https://www.itnnews.co.in/indian-transplant-newsletter/issue8/A-CASE-OF-NERVES-738.htm
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