The Asian Society of Transplantation, founded in 1989 includes Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Republic of China, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The registry was also started from the same year in cooperation with these 16 countries. A questionnaire was sent to the key person of each country every year. The questionnaire includes (a) number of centers that performed organ transplants, (b) varieties and numbers of organ transplants performed in 2000 and 2001, (c) present status of dialysis, number of dialysis patients, and number of the candidates on the list for transplantation, (d) number of patients going abroad for transplantation, and (e) recent transplant highlights, news and issues affecting each country during 2000 and 2001. We previously gathered data for 2000, except for Indonesia, Singapore, and the UAE. Regarding 2001 data, we will send the questionnaires to the countries involved.
Since 1998, 42 hand transplants in 30 patients have been performed in countries such as France, United States, China, Austria, Malaysia, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Spain, and Germany. Now, with recent improvements in immunosuppression, the clinical applicability may expand and the ethical obstacles may soon be overcome, allowing multiple US institutions to perform hand allotransplantation. The main purpose of this article is to facilitate access to pertinent details in regards to hand transplantation, such as donor/recipient selection criteria, immunosuppressive therapies, and associated complications. It is a comprehensive literature review compiled from published reports from multiple hand transplant programs throughout the world. Due to its inherent complexity, hand transplantation should only be attempted at institutions within the US capable of orchestrating a specialized multidisciplinary team, and each institution's protocol should be extremely detailed and individualized.