While the world’s first penile transplant was a smashing success–resulting in the fathering of a child–the United States is set to see its first attempt with an operation scheduled to be performed on a wounded U.S. war veteran.
The upcoming surgery, which will be conducted at the John Hopkins University Medical Center, is scheduled just months away, Vice News reports.
CBS News reports that the recipient of the new penis is, according to surgeons at John Hopkins School of Medicine, a young soldier who was injured by the detonation of an explosive in Afghanistan.
The transplant organ intended to be used in the operation comes from a deceased donor.
Sensation, urinary function and eventually, the ability to use the organ in sex are all expected to develop over just a matter of months, according to doctors.
Plans for the transplant were first reported by The New York Times.
Before the successful penile transplant which took place in South Africa last year, one in which a botched circumcision’s results were resolved, the only other attempt documented in a medical journal was a failed attempt that took place in China back in 2006.
John Hopkins School of Medicine currently has an active transplant program for hands and faces. Dr. Damon Cooney, co-clinical director of the penile transplant program at John Hopkins, told CBS News that they “want to continue to expand the field into areas that are not easy to reconstruct using conventional methods” and that when they looked at the military, the more they “came to find out that although people aren’t talking about it much, genital injuries are a much bigger problem for a lot of people.”
We want to continue to expand the field into areas that are not easy to reconstruct using conventional methods (…) The more and more interactions we’ve had with the military, the more we came to find out that although people aren’t talking about it much, genital injuries are a much bigger problem for a lot of people.
NYU Langone Medical Center’s director of male reproductive health, Dr. Joseph Alukal, told CBS that veterans who are returning from Afghanistan and Iraq “have a disproportionate amount of what we call urogenital trauma — trauma to the penis or testicles — which is an unfortunate byproduct of the nature of the injuries they sustain because of things like IED explosions” and that it has “been far more of an issue with this engagement than what we’ve ever seen before.”
Between the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, a total of 1,367 soldiers have suffered injuries to their genitals, News Corp Australia reports.
If we were going to attempt this at NYU, I would warn patients that while we can make guarantees regarding the idea that the operation should work in terms of the new organ surviving, but in terms of its functionality during sex, we’ll do everything we can to make it work but we can’t guarantee that
While the procedure is considered experimental and it does have its risks — such as bleeding, infection and other complications — Alukal believes that NYU “can make guarantees regarding the idea that the operation should work in terms of the new organ surviving,” but as far as sexual functionality is concerned, they simply cannot make that guarantee at this time.
The Telegraph reports that following the procedure, 60 more are scheduled to follow.
