Warren C. Breidenbach III (born California) is an American

hand surgeon Hand surgery deals with both surgical and non-surgical treatment of conditions and problems that may take place in the hand or upper extremity (commonly from the tip of the hand to the shoulder)Hand surgery is extremely difficult, ranking last o ...

most well known for having performed the first long-term successful

hand transplant Hand transplantation is a surgical procedure to transplant a hand from one human to another. The donor hand usually comes from a brain-dead donor and is transplanted to a recipient who has lost one or both hands/arms. Most hand transplants to dat ...

surgery in the world at Jewish Hospital in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. The surgery was performed by Breidenbach and hand surgeon Tsu-Min Tsai, both of Kleinert, Kutz and Associates Hand Care Center, leading a team of surgeons to attach a donor left hand to replace New Jersey native Matthew Scott's left hand. The Louisville hand surgery team went on to perform additional hand transplants between 1999 and 2011, when Breidenbach relocated to the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

in Tucson,

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

to start a

Composite Tissue Allotransplantation Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic material ...

center at the university's medical center. Breidenbach attributes the team's success in the first hand transplant to feasibility studies and research, including reviews of the medical literature, prior to the clinical procedure. Breidenbach graduated from the

University of Calgary The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Breidenbach, Warren Living people University of Calgary alumni University of Alberta alumni American plastic surgeons American orthopedic surgeons American transplant surgeons Year of birth missing (living people)