The world’s third penis transplant has been successfully completed by a team of surgeons from Stellenbosch University and the Tygerberg Academic Hospital based in Cape Town, South Africa.
According to Daily Mail UK, the first penile transplant was reportedly performed by Pro Van der Merwe, head of the Division of Urology and his team at the same hospital on December 11, 2014.
The second was done a year and a half later, on May 16, 2016, at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
The latest 10-hour surgery was performed on a 40-year-old patient who lost his penis due to complications from a traditional circumcision 17 years ago. A color discrepancy was resolved by Merwe, who implemented medical tattooing after eight months.
“He is certainly one of the happiest patients we have seen in our ward. He is doing remarkably well. There are no signs of rejection and all the reconnected structures seem to be healing well,” Merwe told the outlet.
“There are a number of men who would benefit from this operation but the issue is a lack of donors and also a lack of funding. A follow-up operation enabled the first patient to urinate normally, without the aid of a catheter, and the doctors said his overall confidence had risen considerably since the procedure,” he added.
Within six months, the patient is expected to regain all urinary and reproductive functions.
