Colleagues,
As reported in Army Times ... The first face transplant performed in the United States, one of only four in the world, made headlines in December, and it won’t be long before face and hand transplants are performed in the military.
Funding for two face transplants, at $1 million each, is already earmarked, according to Army doctors, who cautioned those who might think they are candidates that the procedure is not simple... “I think it depends on the anti-rejection therapy,” said Col. Robert Vandre, project director at the Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine...
While face and hand transplants are still a few years in the future for the Army, regenerative medicine — the growth of skin and muscle — is under way... Two soldiers are recipients of regenerative medicine, according to Vandre. The soldiers were burn patients and, by using a powder that’s made from pig bladders, doctors were able to lengthen their fingers so they could pick up objects and button shirts.
Within a year, he said, the Army will be doing muscle and skin regeneration in five clinical trials with dozens of soldiers who volunteered for the study. Also, a study to reduce scars and burns will be conducted.
Maj. Gen. George Weightman, commanding general of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, spoke at the conference about a variety of additional innovations in medical technology and disease prevention that soldiers can expect to see in the near future.
Researchers are looking at a drug that can be administered intravenously for the treatment of traumatic brain injury in far forward medical facilities...A finger-mounted, minimally invasive ultrasound will be out within the next one to two years, so medics and doctors can look inside the body, he said.
Read on:
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/03/army_face_transplant_030809w/
ENJOY!
CC