The United States is set to be host to its first penis transplant, which will soon happen for an American soldier wounded in Afghanistan.
The surgery is said to not involve the testes, where sperm are produced, so that the man receiving the transplanted penis can still father a child who would share his genetics, if all goes well.
Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital say that the patient in this case, who wishes to remain unnamed, is ready for surgery and now simply waiting for a donor who would be a good match in terms of skin tone and age.
What happened to make this man need a new penis? The recipient was injured in military action in the Middle East when a bomb explosion caused him to sustain substantial groin injuries.
“When you meet these guys and you realize what they’ve given for the country, it makes a lot of sense, (to perform the surgery),” Dr. Richard Redett, a plastic surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital who will help perform the operation, told Reuters.
Surgeons are hoping that a donated organ from a recently deceased man could provide the recipient with fully operational sensation, sex and urination, even while the surgery is complicated.
Multiple nerves and blood vessels need to be connected at a microscopic level for success.
To date, two penis transplants have taken place in the world- one in China in 2006 and another in South Africa in 2014, with a 50% success rate.
Doctors are hoping that this first transplant on U.S soil will pave the way for around 60 other servicemen with genital injuries to have this same surgery.
Photo credit: Bumble Dee/Shutterstock
