An American soldier who was injured with an explosive in Afghanistan received the world's first complete penis and scrotum transplant, which was performed by a team of 11 surgeons who operated on the patient for 14 hours at Johns Hopkins Hospital and University, a reference in U.S.
"We are confident that the transplant will allow this young man to recover his voiding and sexual functions almost entirely," said Andrew Lee, professor and director of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
On March 26, a team of nine plastic surgeons and two urological surgeons operated on the patient for 14 hours. The surgeons transplanted the penis, the scrotum (without the testicles) and part of the abdominal wall of a deceased donor.
The recipient of the transplant, who chose not to reveal his identity, is a soldier who was released due to physical injuries in Afghanistan, who "is already recovered from surgery and awaits hospital discharge this week," they said from the health center.
"While it is possible to reconstruct the penis with tissue from other parts of the body, it would be necessary to implant a prosthesis to achieve an erection, which poses a higher risk of infection." Also, due to other injuries, soldiers often have no tissue enough of other parts of the body that can be taken advantage of, "Lee said.
The intervention, which is called "vascularized compound allogeneic transplantation" and involves transplanting a part or tissue of the body from one person to another, includes several complex tissues that may contain skin, muscle, tendon, bone, nerves and blood vessels.
"The rejection of transplanted tissue is always a concern, so the patient is given immunosuppressive therapy to prevent it," they said.
The medical team, which had also performed the first bilateral arm transplant in the United States on another soldier, added that "there are many combatants returning from missions with visible injuries and mutilations due to the detonation of improvised explosives"
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