From the first hand transplant that ushered in the era of reconstructive transplantation, it was apparent that the psychosocial background of the patient and the psychological impact of these visible organs was of extreme importance to their success and outcome.

With the small number of cases performed it was evident that a multicenter collaboration was needed and this was proposed by MK. Building on Kumnig's structured assessment in Innsbruck, Jowsey-Gregoire began a collaboration that culminated in a workshop led by Kumnig, Jowsey and Moreno at the 2012 ASRT meeting in Chicago. This was subsequently supported by Petruzzo and Morelon and under the auspices of the International Society of Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation (ISVCA) resulted in the first Chauvet meeting focused on the experience to date on the psychiatric/psychosocial evaluation, instruments used and psychosocial outcomes of hand grafted patients. The Chauvet name was chosen in reference to the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave that contains the oldest handprints known to indicate that this endeavor belongs to all. The second meeting was held in 2016 and expanded to cover face and uterine transplantation. These meetings included teams from most VCA centers from as far as the US and Mexico to India and Australia.

A steering committee was created to guide future meetings. The proposed path forward is for this workgroup to meet biannually (even years) with any interested party being able to submit to host the meeting. It is to serve as a venue for discussing research in the psychosocial aspects of VCA and outcomes. Noting the intertwined nature of psychosocial outcomes and functional outcomes future meetings will be open to discuss this aspect also.

Meeting reports will be published after each biannual meeting with all attendees having the option of being included as authors. The Workgroup will also reach out to VCA relevant societies to collaborate and have representation at their meetings with the desire that it fosters international multicenter collaboration in psychosocial aspects of VCA for the clinical, research and regulatory arenas.

CITATION INFORMATION: Amer H., Jowsey-Gregoire S., Kumnig M., Moreno E., Dean W., Brown C., Jarvholm S., Coffman K., Petruzzo P., Morelon E. The Chauvet Workgroup: From Inception to the Future Am J Transplant. 2017;17 (suppl 3).

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