It was December 2014 when the first penis transplant took place.

Since then another transplant went down over in Boston at the Massachusetts General Hospital, but now, the same team from Stellenbosch University (SU) and the Tygerberg Academic Hospital, have completed their second successful transplant on home soil.

Although his identity has been protected for “ethical reasons”, the recipient, a 40-year-old male who had lost his penis 17 years prior due to “complications after a traditional circumcision”, was reportedly delighted:

Prof André van der Merwe [pictured], Head of the Division of Urology at SU’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), led the marathon operation of nine and a half hours performed on 21 April.

“He is certainly one of the happiest patients we have seen in our ward. He is doing remarkably well,” says Prof Van der Merwe.

“There are no signs of rejection and all the reconnected structures seem to be healing well.”

Within six months the patient is expected to regain all “urinary and reproductive functions of the organ,” reports Health24.

And here’s the real juice:

A colour discrepancy between the recipient and the donor organ will be corrected with medical tattooing between six to eight months after the operation.

“Unfortunately we could not find a donor of the same race. In this case the donor is white and the recipient is black.”

Eina.

So how was the procedure conducted? With a little dissection and a little connection:

The entire penis was carefully dissected from the donor to keep blood vessels, nerves and other connecting structures intact. These were marked and connected to the recipient’s correlating tissue during the transplant.

The surgeons connected:

• Three blood vessels (each between 1 and 2mm in diameter) to ensure sufficient blood flow to the transplanted organ;
• Two dorsal nerves (also between 1 and 2mm in diameter) to restore sensation;
• The urethra, which enables the recipient to urinate through the penis; as well as
• The corpus cavernosum (cavernous body of the penis), which will allow the patient to obtain an erection.

How’s that for a Tuesday morning biology lesson. Squeamish much?

[source: health24&timeslive]