Spain carries out world's first double leg transplant

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_31265.shtml


It was performed in Valencia by the surgeon who carried out the first face transplant in Spain, Dr Pedro Cavadas
Surgeon Pedro Cavadas - EFE


A medical team led by the noted surgeon Pedro Cavadas has carried out the world’s first double leg transplant, in a five-hour operation at Valencia’s La Fe Hospital which was authorised by Spain’s transplant commission last year.

The patient is a young man who lost both his legs above the knee and is unable to use prostheses. The operation, which began on Sunday night and concluded on Monday,was the only alternative to his spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

Dr Cavadas told newspaper ’20 minutos’ that, ‘the transplant, if all goes well, gives great hope to other patients who are confined to a wheelchair’.

The surgeon carried out Spain’s first face transplant in 2009. One of his pioneer operations was when he kept a patient’s severed leg alive by temporarily implanting it on his other leg, first at the groin and then at the ankle, before it was reattached.