The team that brought an organ in out of the cold
A TEAM of specialist doctors, nurses, anaesthetists and other support staff spent nine hours performing the ground-breaking penile transplant surgery.
Planning and preparation started as far back as 2010, and included cadaver dissections to study anatomy and plan the surgery.
The procedure consisted of harvesting the organ and preserving it in a cold medium, as well as the actual transplantation surgery.
Professor Frank Graewe, head of plastic reconstructive surgery at Stellenbosch University, said that identifying blood vessels and nerves was the biggest challenge.
This was because most of the penile blood vessels in the recipient had been damaged due to infective changes, after an infection from a botched traditional circumcision destroyed the biggest part of his penis.
“Blood means life,” said Graewe. “The most important task was to re-establish blood supply to the organ.”
The donor penis came from a patient who had been declared brain dead. The man’s family agreed to the donation of his penis.
The operation was led by Professor André van der Merwe, who said there was still very patchy sensation over the transplanted penis, and that it was not as sensitive as a normal penis.
“The nerves were connected by microscope but only grow 1mm a day,” said Van der Merwe.
“All the nerves [were] not grown in yet. I suspect at two years all the nerves would have grown in.”
Men who had lost their penises through cancer, or those with severe erectile dysfunction, could also eventually become candidates for the procedure.
The most important task was to re-establish blood supply to the organ