Physicians transplant first penis including scrotum

World's first penis and scrotum transplant performed

Doctors in the US have achieved a medical sensation. The physicians have transplanted a penis including scrotum worldwide for the first time. According to the surgeons, the patient should be able to urinate with the donated organ in the future again and to be sexually active.

Complete penis and scrotum transplantation

Transplantation medicine has made tremendous progress worldwide in recent decades. For example, organs such as kidney, liver and lung are often transplanted today. In recent years, some medics have also managed sensational operations. For example, doctors in the US managed to transplant a skullcap. And recently, French doctors reported on a patient who received his third face after the first graft had been rejected. In the US, another medical sensation has now been achieved. There, the world's first complete penis and scrotum transplantation was performed.
In the US, surgeons worldwide have transplanted a penis and scrotum for the first time. The patient had been injured as a soldier in Afghanistan. (Image: AntonioDiaz / fotolia.com)

Operation lasted 14 hours

As the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland reports in a message on Twitter, the 14-hour operation was carried out on a US soldier who was injured in Afghanistan.

According to a statement from the university, this was the first successfully completed complete penis and scrotum transplantation in the world.

"We are confident that this transplant will help this young man to urinate normally and return his sexual functions," said Andrew Lee, professor and director of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Patient has recovered well

A team of nine plastic surgeons and two urological surgeons participated in the 14-hour operation on March 26. They transplanted from a deceased donor the entire penis, scrotum (without testicles) and part of the abdominal wall.

"It's a really incredible injury, it's not easy to accept it," said the recipient, who wants to remain anonymous.

"When I first woke up, I finally felt more normal ... and also had a certain amount of self-confidence. Trust ... finally I'm okay. "

According to the report, the patient recovered well from the operation, which was performed about a month ago, and is expected to be released from hospital in a few days.

"As with any transplant surgery, rejection of tissue is a problem," the doctors write. The patient is treated with immunosuppressants to prevent rejection.

Thanks to penis grafting become father

Although the US doctors reported the world's first complete penile and scrotal transplant, it was not the first transplant of a male penis.

The first successful penile transplantation was reported in South Africa in 2015.

Surgeon Frank Graewe from Stellenbosch University near Cape Town said, "We've proven it's possible - we can give someone an organ that's as good as what he had."

A few months after surgery, the man became a father thanks to penile transplantation.

The first penile engraftment in the US was performed in 2016. At that time, a 64-year-old man whose genitalia had been amputated because of a cancer, the donor organ of a deceased received. (Ad)