The world’s first penis transplant has been declared a success after it was performed at a hospital in South Africa.
The patient, 21, had his original organ amputated after life-threatening complications caused by a traditional circumcision.
Only three months after replacement surgery was performed, doctors say that he is sexually active, 21 months before the anticipated schedule. He also has full urinary functions.
“Our goal was that he would be fully functional at two years, and we are surprised by his rapid recovery,” said André van der Merwe, a urologist at Stellenbosch University, who led the nine-hour operation in Tygerberg Hospital, Bellville, a city in greater Cape Town. The donor had given doctors permission to use his penis in exchange for surgeons fashioning him one from his abdominal skin, so that he could be buried with one.
“It’s a massive breakthrough. We have proved . . . we can give someone an organ that is just as good as the one that he had,” said Frank Graewe, who was part of the operating team.
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Another professor involved said that he had dealt with many transplant patients in his career, but “none as happy as this one”. The man has not been identified for ethical reasons.
Doctors in China performed a similar operation on another patient in 2006, which was declared a success, but were forced to remove the new organ two weeks later because of a “severe psychological reaction”.