Transplant Timeline – Other & Unusual

400 BCE to First century CE: First skin grafts/flaps for facial reconstruction: In the work Samhita, Indian author Sushruta describes reconstruction of noses and ear lobes using skin grafts from the cheek. (Early research dates Samhita a from about 600 BCE, but modern historians dispute this date, giving a date of 400 BCE to 1st century CE.)

1668: Xenotransplant – First successful bone graft: Dutchman Job van Meeneren documents the use of a bone graft from a dog's skull to repair a defect in a human cranium.

1682: Xenotransplant – Another, or the same bone graft but different date?: A bone from a dog is reportedly used to repair the skull of an injured Russian aristocrat (who is later said to have had the bone removed because of threats of excommunication from the church).

1822: First Skin Transplant (autograft): Berger reportedly performs the first skin autograft – but it can only be the first if the procedure described in Sushruta's Samhita (c. 400 BCE) was theoretical.

1881: First Temporary Skin Transplant (from a cadaver): A surgeon treats a patient, suffering from burns received while leaning against a metal door that was struck by lightning, using skin from a deceased person as a temporary graft.

1906: First Successful Cornea Transplant: Dr. Eduard Zirm, a surgeon working in the Moravian town of Olmutz, performs the first corneal transplant to maintain some degree of transparency. He publishes a paper in the 1906 Archives of Ophthalmology (64:580-591). Few other surgeons match Zirm's success until after the Second World War, when very fine needles and finer silk become available.

1908: First Knee-joint Transplant: Dr. Erich Lexer of Germany reports performing the first knee-joint transplant (from a cadaver), but the procedure is unsuccessful.

1911: First Vein Transplant: Dr. Yamanouchi performs the first use of homologous vein tissue in arterial reconstruction.

1920: Xenotransplant – First Monkey Testicles Transplanted into Human: At his clinic in France, Dr. Serge Voronoff transplants monkey testicles into a man. By the early 1930s, more than 500 men are reported to have received transplanted testicles.

1964: First Attempted Hand Transplant: A hand is transplanted in Ecuador, but it is rejected within two weeks.

1969: First Partial Larynx Transplant: A Belgian doctor performs a subtotal transplant of a larynx, but the patient dies without speaking.

1983: First Multi-Visceral Transplant: The first multi-visceral transplant is performed at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania.

1985: Ethics: The Ethics Committee of the Council of the Transplantation Society, an international body, issues guidelines prohibiting the buying and selling of organs and tissues.

1988: First Sciatic Nerve Transplant: Drs. Alan R. Hudson and Susan E. Mackinnon, of the University of Toronto, transplant the sciatic nerve of a 16-year-old female, who died from a hemorrhage, into nine-year-old Matthew Beech, who had his sciatic nerve destroyed in a water-skiing accident. Two years after the surgery, Beech could feel pinpricks on the sole of his foot for the first time since the accident, showing that the axons had grown through the graft and down the nerves to the sole of the foot.

1988: First Human Fetal Cell Transplant: University of Colorado doctors implant fetal cells into a patient's brain.

A follow-up study of Parkinson's patients with transplanted fetal cells, which is published in The New England Journal of Medicine on November 26, 1992, indicates promising results. However, in a later study, published by several of the same doctors and appearing in the March 8, 2001 NEJM, finds that the cell transplant benefit occurred in younger patients, not older patients, and that 15% of younger patients suffer irreversible side effects known as disabling dyskinesias.

1998: First Total Larynx Transplant: Dr. Marshall Strome leads a team of Cleveland Clinic doctors in performing a total larynx transplant on 40-year-old Timothy Heidler, whose larynx was destroyed 20 years before in a motorcycle accident. Three days after the surgery, Heidler is able to speak for the first time since the accident.

1998: First (Semi) Successful Hand Transplant: Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard performs a hand transplant on New Zealander Clint Hallam in Lyon, France. After reportedly not following correct anti-rejection treatment or physical therapy, the hand is amputated at the patient's request on February 2, 2001.

1998: First Unrelated Stem Cell Transplant: Doctors at the AFLAC Cancer Center of Egleston Children's Hospital at Emory University in Atlanta perform an unrelated donor cord blood stem transplant on Keone Penn, a 12-year-old with sickle cell anemia. In June 2003, Penn provides testimony about the procedure, which cured his sickle cell disease, before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space.

2000: First Womb Transplant: Dr. Wafa Fageeh at King Fahad Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, transplants the uterus of a 46-year-old into a 26-year-old woman. The uterus produces two menstrual periods before it fails after three months and has to be removed.

2003: First Jawbone Transplant: Surgeons at Rome's Istituto Regina Elena transplant a mandible from the body of a 39-year-old man into an 80-year-old man who has advanced cancer of the mouth.

2003: First Tongue Transplant: A team of Austrian doctors at Vienna's General Hospital performs a 14-hour tongue transplant on a 42-year-old man suffering from a malignant tumor affecting his tongue and jaw.

2004: First Ankle Transplant: In August, a team of Italian surgeons led by Dr. Sandro Giannini, transplanted the ankle of a 17-year-old boy (who had died in a car accident) into Silvano Bordon, a 48-year-old rally driver, who had lost mobility of his foot in an accident in 1991.

2005: First Partial Face Transplant: On November 27, surgeons at a hospital in Amiens in northern France performed the world's first partial face transplant, grafting a nose, lips, and chin onto a 38-year-old woman, Isabelle Dinoire, who had been disfigured by a dog bite received in May 2005.

2006: First Penis Transplant: Dr. Weilie Hu and surgeons at Guangzhou General Hospital in China performed a penis transplant on a 44-year-old man whose penis had been damaged in a traumatic accident. The donor was a 22-year-old man. Ten days after the surgery, the man had been able to urinate normally. However, the penis was removed two weeks later due to "a severe psychological problem of the recipient and his wife." There had been no signs of rejection.