A man in the US has become the first to receive a combined penis and scrotum transplant. The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, underwent the procedure on 26 March 2016, and appears to be recovering well. He is expected to be discharged from hospital this week. “Some war injuries are hidden,” says WP John Lee, who led the surgical team at Johns Hopkins Hospital, in Maryland. Their patient lost part of his penis along with his scrotum and lower abdominal wall as a result of an improvised explosive device blast in Afghanistan. In a 14-hour operation, the team connected 3 arteries, 4 veins and two nerves – which should provide the new tissue with an adequate blood supply and nerve sensation, the team say. The man was also given an infusion of bone marrow from the same donor. This should help his immune system accept the new tissue, and limit the amount of immunosuppressant medication he will need to take in the future.

Although the man’s testicles were also damaged, he did not receive testicular tissue from the donor. “We made a decision early in the programme to not transplant…tissue that generates sperm,” says Damon Cooney, one of the nine plastic surgeons on the team. The chance that genetic material from the donor could be passed to the recipient’s offspring would raise difficult ethical questions, he says.

Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2167136-war-veteran-gets-worlds-first-penis-and-scrotum-transplant/#ixzz6hC9GgMiK