A German farmer who lost both his arms in an accident has been successfully fitted with two new limbs in what is believed to be the first complete double arm transplant, his surgeons said Friday.

Reiner Gradinger, medical director at the Munich University Clinic, said doctors spent 15 hours on July 25-26 grafting the arms onto the body of a 54-year-old man who had lost his just below the shoulder in the accident six years ago.

"The reattachment appears up to now to have proceeded optimally," Gradinger said, adding the patient is recovering well.

In London, Keith Rigg, vice president of the British Transplantation Society, told The Associated Press that he believes the operation was the world's first double arm transplant.

The farmer's name was not released, nor was the identity of the donor _ a person who died shortly before the surgery.

Christoph Hoehnke, another surgeon on the transplant team, said the complicated procedure went off without any problems. It involved a team of 40 doctors, nurses and assistants working together, attaching one arm and then the other.

"The whole thing went according to script," Hoehnke said.

Transplant recipients face possible complications and a lifetime of anti-rejection drugs, which have side effects. Continued...