Surgeons in Louisville, Ky., performed the first hand transplant in the United States on Sunday, replacing the left hand of a New Jersey man with one taken from an unidentified donor who had died a few hours earlier.

The 15-hour operation was performed at Louisville Jewish Hospital on Matthew David Scott, 37, of Absecon, N.J., who lost his hand in a fireworks accident in December 1985, hospital officials said.

Mr. Scott's hand transplant is the third ever performed and the second within five months. Clint Hallam, 48, of Australia is progressing surprisingly well after receiving a hand and forearm transplant in Lyons, France, last September. Mr. Hallam is able to grasp a glass in his hand and drink from it, two of his doctors said in recent interviews.

Mr. Scott's hand was reattached about two inches above the wrist by a team headed by Dr. Warren C. Breidenbach, a hand surgeon with Kleinert, Kutz and Associates Hand Care Center and assistant clinical professor of surgery at the University of Louisville. Dr. Breidenbach rushed back from a meeting on immunology in Colorado when a donor hand suddenly became available.