Dive Brief:
- Surgeons at the Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) recently conducted the first genitourinary reconstructive (penile) transplant in the U.S., the hospital announced today.
- Bank courier Thomas Manning, 64, underwent a penis amputation in 2012 after being diagnosed with penile cancer and received the organ from a deceased donor on May 8 and 9, according to The New York Times. Manning is recovering well with "no signs of bleeding, rejection or infection," the surgeons said.
- The surgeons had three main goals: Reconstructing external genitalia to have a more natural appearance, re-establishing urinary function, and achieving sexual function.
Dive Insight:
The surgery, a genitourinary vascularized composite allograft (GUVCA) transplant, required "surgically grafting the complex microscopic vascular and neural structures of a donor organ onto the comparable structures of the recipient," a prepared statement noted.
According to the surgeons, it represents more than three years of research as well as collaboration across various hospital departments and divisions such as plastic and reconstructive surgery, urology, psychiatry, infectious disease, nursing, and social work.
One of the surgeons that led the 15-hour operation, Curtis L. Cetrulo, of the MGH Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the Transplant Center said in a prepared statement, “We are hopeful that these reconstructive techniques will allow us to alleviate the suffering and despair of those who have experienced devastating genitourinary injuries and are often so despondent they consider taking their own lives.”
“The entire transplant team has worked tirelessly to ensure that our patient is on the path to recovery, thanks in part to the gift of organ donation,” Cetrulo added.
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine had hoped to be the hospital to conduct nation's first penis transplant when it announced in December 2015 it had granted surgeons permission to perform 60 of such transplants.