World-first surgery for injured soldier

AN ARMY veteran has become the first man to undergo a full genital transplant.

The young soldier’s pelvic area was shattered by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

But now doctors have transplanted a penis and scrotum on to him from a donor, and hope this will restore his urinary and sexual functions.

The unnamed recipient said: ‘It’s a real mind-boggling injury to suffer. It is not an easy one to accept.’

But describing his feelings after the operation, he added: ‘I felt finally more normal... [with] a level of confidence as well.’ The genitalia, together with part of the abdominal wall were taken from a deceased donor by surgeons at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the United States last month.

The recipient is expected to leave hospital this week having recovered well from the 14-hour procedure.

Doctors said the surgery involved transplanting skin, muscles and tendons, nerves, bone and blood vessels.

Three other successful penis transplants have been performed, two in South Africa and one in Massachusetts in 2016.

But those transplants involved only the penis, not extensive surrounding tissue that makes such surgery for combat wounds more difficult.

Dr Andrew Lee, professor and director of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the hospital, said: ‘Genito-urinary injury, where the male service member’s external genitalia are lost or severely damaged, is an unspoken injury of war.’

In all, nine plastic surgeons and two urologic surgeons carried out the operation.

Dr Rick Redett, clinical director of the transplant programme, said the donor’s testicles were not transplanted. He added: ‘Our patient is recovering from the transplant well. He is up walking and the graft shows no signs of infection or rejection.’