World’s First Successful Penis Transplant Completed in Nine-Hour Operation

A team of doctors from South Africa, performed the world's first successful penis transplant following a marathon 9 hour surgery.

Stellenbosch University made the announcement on Friday and the team of surgeons was led by Dr Andre Van der Merwe who is the head of the Urology division in the university. The operation was performed in December at the Tygerberg hospital in Cape Town.

The surgery was carried out on an unidentified 24 year old man who had to undergo penile amputation following a botched circumcision when he was 18.

Van der Merwe said, "This is a very serious situation. For a young man of 18 or 19 years the loss of his penis can be deeply traumatic. He doesn't necessarily have the psychological capability to process this. There are even reports of suicide among these young men."

According to Dr Van der Merwe, the transplanted penis "was harvested from a donor whose family was consulted."

The surgery turned out to be hugely successful with the patient regaining full urinary and reproductive functions in four months. Van der Merwe said that the patient was happy with the procedure and was not experiencing any major side effects.

Prior to the surgery, the doctors made sure that the donor and the recipient belonged to the same race. Van der Merwe said, "Cosmetically we've got a very good match for colour. We obviously transplanted a good normal penis and the erections that the patient gets are very good."

Fellow surgeon Dr Frank Graewe who assisted in the surgery said, "It's a massive breakthrough. We've proved that it can be done -- we can give someone an organ that is just as good as the one that he had."

The doctors are optimistic that the surgery could now be performed on patients with severe erectile dysfunction and those who are suffering from penile cancer as well. The team is scheduled to perform nine more penis transplants surgeries in the coming months.