excellent at institutions that are fully committed to the procedure, the number of hand transplants performed after 2008 has been small due to drug-related side effects, uncertain long-term outcome, and the high costs of surgery, rehabilitation and immunosuppression. Programs United States The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Hand and Arm Transplant Program was approved by the Johns Hopkins Medicine Institutional Review Board in July 2011. This is one of only two programs in the United States approved to perform hand/arm transplants using an immunomodulatory protocol, which enables patients to take one drug (instead of three) after the transplant to maintain the hand or arm. The program is funded by the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC) Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) to transplant up to six Wounded Warriors or civilians who have a hand or arm amputation on one or both sides. The Southern Illinois University School of Medicine Hand Transplant Program is located in Springfield, Illinois. The program was officially launched in January 2014 after receiving IRB approval and grant funding to transplant five patients, unilateral or bilateral, at minimal cost to the patients. The UCLA Hand Transplant Program, located in Los Angeles, California, was launched July 28, 2010. At the time, it was the only one on the West Coast and one of only four in the country. United Kingdom In 2016, it was announced that NHS patients in England were to become some of the first in the world to benefit from publicly funded pioneering hand and upper arm transplants delivered by a specialist team at Leeds General Infirmary. See also Meniscus transplant References Further reading Organ transplantation Tissue transplants Types of amputations Plastic surgery Transplant History of Louisville, Kentucky