A German team of surgeons at the Munich University Clinic have successfully reattached two complete arms to a patient who lost his in the accident six years ago. The surgery is believed to be the world's first of its kind, involving two complete limbs. The Rechts der Isar Clinic assembled a team of 40 doctors, nurses and assistants working together for no less than 15 hours on July 25-26, and the operation appears to be a success.

The man, 54, is a former farmer who sought help after two failed attempts to use artificial prostheses. The surgical team was headed by Dr. Christoph Hoehnke. The clinic head, Professor Hans-Guenther Machens, led the efforts to prepare the man for the difficult operation since December last year. Then, the search was on for a suitable donor who would not only be compatible biologically, but who would also be about the same age, sex, size and skin color.

The farmer will have to wait about two years for his nerves to reconnect. Before that, he will be unable to move or feel his hands. The man will take for the rest of his life special medication to suppress his immune system, preventing it from attacking the grafts. The drugs have other side effects as well.

The man's wife said that the new hands look exactly as they used to before the amputation, a remark which pleased the surgical team.

The complex operation was made possible by the high level of experience of the Munich clinic, which has performed microsurgery and transplants for decades. The hands were taken from a donor who died shortly before the transplant. His identity, as well as the farmer's, were not released.

In December last year, it was revealed that on November 27, 2005, 38-year-old Isabelle Dinoire was the first person to ever undergo a face transplant intervention, after being severely attacked by her dog. The intervention was not only controversial and risky, but also required multiple approvals from the Local Protection of Persons Committee, the French Agency for Health Safety and the French Biomedicine Agency. The surgeon responsible for the face transplant was Jean-Michel Dubernard, who admitted that not only was the intervention a difficult one, but the recovery process was even more complicated.

According to a report published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the patient was able to drink and eat within the first week after the surgery, although the leakage from her mouth completely disappeared only 12 months later. Heat and cold sensations were close to normal 4 months after the intervention.

The same report also mentions that the sensory recovery was much faster then the motor one, as the patient was able to move her upper lip only 4 months after the transplant. The smile was still incomplete after 4 months, and remained asymmetric for the first 10 months, becoming normal only 2.5 years after.