Complication in Turkey's quadruple limb transplant

Turkish surgeons had to remove one leg from a patient who underwent a quadruple limb transplant after his heart and vascular system failed to sustain the limb, the hospital said on Sunday.

Fifty-two doctors from Ankara's Hacettepe University Hospital performed what was reported as the world's first-ever quadruple limb transplant on Friday, attaching two arms and two legs to Sevket Cavdar.

"A broad science council (of the hospital) convened and decided to remove one leg from the patient after his cardiovascular system was unable to sustain the limb," the hospital said in a statement.

It added that the patient's condition was now stable.

The operation came on the heels of the country's first-ever face transplant at another Turkish university hospital.

Last month, a team of doctors at Akdeniz University in the southern city of Antalya successfully performed the operation on a 19-year-old boy whose face was burned when he was a 40-day-old baby.

(c) 2012 AFP