“It's easy to cut, but difficult to recreate.”
Professor, Dr. Nguyen The Hoang was born into a family with a tradition of medicine (his grandfather was a physician, his father was the former Director of Military Hospital 105 and his mother was a pharmacist). It was from that "cradle" that gradually lit up in him a silent fire of desire to treat and save people... The years of studying at the Military Medical Academy , followed by 2 years of volunteering to work on the Cambodian battlefield as the captain of the surgical team of the Military Medical Department, fueled in him a strong passion for scientific research. Seeing with his own eyes the wounded soldiers on the battlefield with their limbs completely crushed, their bones and joints exposed due to mine wounds or gunshot wounds, if not treated promptly, they were at risk of dying quickly due to blood loss shock, infection... made him have a burning dream to do something to restore a normal and healthy life to them.
Major General, Professor, Doctor of Science, People's Physician Nguyen The Hoang, Deputy Director of 108 Central Military Hospital, Academician of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) - the pride of the Vietnam Military Medicine sector.
When he returned to work at the 108 Military Central Hospital , and then continued to do research abroad under the guidance of Professor, Dr. E. Biemer, President of the German Society of Microplastic Surgery, those burning aspirations urged him to carry out a groundbreaking research project in the field of neovascularization and cell culture, then moved to a free organization applying microsurgery to treat complex, persistent, difficult-to-heal injuries in limbs due to war wounds.
From this research, he has successfully operated on many patients with tissue defects and complex limb deformities due to trauma, wounds or congenital malformations. His recent research in the field of limb transplantation has opened up completely new prospects for amputee patients. These studies will help amputee patients escape from disability, helping them to have a perfect and complete body with a much better quality of life than before.
We made an appointment and met him in a very limited time. As a hospital leader, although the professional work at the end of the year was extremely busy, he still exuded the calm and relaxed appearance of a great scientist.
He confided: “In 2008, I was one of the five main surgeons with German colleagues at the Recht der Isar Surgical Hospital who successfully performed a simultaneous double arm transplant from a brain-dead donor to a German citizen who had lost both arms 4 years earlier. This was the first simultaneous double arm transplant in the world. Before the transplant, losing both arms was a real “disaster” for the patient. The patient had been examined in many places, but there was no really feasible solution. It was not until he met my teacher, Professor, Dr. E. Biemer, that he was advised about the only possibility to perfectly restore both the aesthetic form and function of the limbs, which was to simultaneously transplant both arms from a brain-dead donor. Hope returned to the patient and he patiently waited for it for 4 years to find a suitable limb donor.”
The transplant was successful as expected. 16 years later, the patient's life has returned to almost normal. He can easily use the transplanted hand to take care of all his personal needs, do almost all daily work and living activities, drive himself and use computers and mobile phones proficiently. That resounding success, along with his outstanding achievements in previous scientific research with the research topic "Regenerative circulation and cell culture to create new living tissues with 3D spatial structure" helped Professor, Dr. Nguyen The Hoang to be honored with the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel scientific research award of the German Academy of Sciences Alexander von Humboldt (2012). This is considered the most prestigious scientific research award of the Federal Republic of Germany for world-famous scientists and scholars who have made great and groundbreaking contributions to science. He was also awarded a German professorship and invited to stay on as a full-time lecturer at the University of Munich. But the concerns and aspirations to treat disabled war invalids that he had witnessed since graduating and during his time working on the Cambodian battlefield urged him to return home to do something for the sick in Vietnam.
In 2020, he was the one who performed the first limb transplant in Vietnam at the 108 Military Central Hospital. This event made Vietnam the first country in Southeast Asia to successfully perform a limb transplant, and this was also the first limb transplant from a living donor in the world. The extremely unique and groundbreaking idea of this transplant was to "use the intact remaining part of a completely severed limb that cannot be regrown to transplant to patients with amputated limbs in the corresponding position".
Professor Nguyen The Hoang shared: The limb transplants that we have successfully performed recently have been highly appreciated by international colleagues. The simultaneous transplant of both arms that we just successfully performed on the 30th of Tet 2024 has extremely spectacular and unimaginable functional recovery. Normally, with double arm transplants performed in Germany or elsewhere in the world, it takes the patient a very long time (up to 2 years) to recover the motor function and sensation of the hand. But with our transplant, after only 2 months the patient was able to move his fingers. After 10 months, the transplanted arm can now perform the function of holding relatively delicate objects such as: holding a cup, holding a pen, texting on a mobile phone, riding a bicycle, motorbike, tying shoelaces... The patient is very happy with the 2 transplanted arms and life has now become much more meaningful because the patient is no longer a burden to family and friends.
In 2023, Professor Hoang also created a miracle in limb transplantation when he successfully performed an extremely special transplant. This was a transplant in which a patient volunteered to donate the intact part of his severed arm that could not be reattached to another patient with a stump in the same position. Professor Hoang made a bold decision to temporarily transplant the intact forearm into the patient's leg for 15 days with much excitement and anxiety. After finding a suitable recipient, the forearm transplant was performed successfully and was absolutely safe for both the donor and the recipient.
“Only 18 months after surgery, the transplanted limb has recovered almost normal function. The recipient has returned to his old profession and is living a completely normal life and working,” Professor Hoang happily said.
dedicated
These special transplants are being written up by him and his colleagues into scientific articles and will soon be published in prestigious international scientific journals. When these transplants were shared and introduced to international friends at scientific conferences in Europe and Asia, they were truly amazed by the high scientific level of Vietnamese surgeons, as well as the spectacular rehabilitation results achieved after surgery.
Limb transplantation is currently considered the most superior reconstructive method in medicine to treat amputees through optimal recovery of motor function, sensation and aesthetic appearance. This is the only optimal method that no other plastic surgery method can replace. Up to now, 108 Military Central Hospital has successfully performed 4 limb transplantation cases, including 2 cases of limb transplantation from living donors and 2 cases from brain-dead donors. Despite initial successes, limb transplantation is still a major challenge for Vietnamese and world medicine due to limited organ donation sources. In addition, because limbs have a very complex and delicate anatomical structure and are very difficult to perform, surgeons and medical staff must be highly trained over a very long period of time.
Professor, Dr. Nguyen The Hoang re-examines a patient he performed limb reconstruction surgery on.
During nearly 35 years of working at the 108 Military Central Hospital, the knowledge that Professor, Dr. Nguyen The Hoang learned and accumulated during his time studying abroad has been effectively realized in clinical practice in Vietnam, making the 108 Military Central Hospital the first medical facility in Southeast Asia to pioneer in the field of limb transplantation. Currently, he and his colleagues are continuing to diligently carry out research topics related to cell culture, circulatory regeneration and free tissue transfer using microsurgery. Professor Hoang's research team, along with his colleagues at the hospital, are still diligently researching and dedicating themselves to finding the newest, shortest and best paths in the career of protecting the health of soldiers and people.
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