Mexico City, Jun 9 (IANS/EFE): A 52-year-old Mexican man who lost his arms in a 2011 electrical accident became the first patient in Latin America to receive a double-arm transplant.

Surgeons at Mexico City's Salvador Zubiran National Institute of Medical Science and Nutrition performed the May 18 operation on Gabriel Granados, who was discharged Thursday after a satisfactory recovery, the Health Secretariat said.

In a statement, the hospital said the donor was a 34-year-old man who had been declared brain dead.

The coordinator of the surgical team that performed the procedure, Martin Iglesias Morales, said in this type of transplant the limbs must be as compatible as possible with the characteristics of the recipient.

Surgeons, therefore, take into account weight, height, skin colour and other attributes, as well as the recipient's health, in carrying out the operation, he said.

Morales, chief of the hospital's plastic surgery division, said the operation was part of a programme involving the participation of some 60 experts from several medical and academic institutions.