A 21-year-old man, who resorted to penis amputation after a penile circumcision procedure had gone wrong, has received world's first successful penis transplantation in South Africa.
The man, a member of South Africa's Xhosa tribe, resorted to amputation three years ago after a circumcision went wrong at a traditional ritual called ukwaluka. The patient received a new organ from a deceased donor in December and has been able to engage in sexual intercourse, gaining all functions back.
The Guardian reported that Professor Andre van der Merwe, head of urology in Stellenbosch University, led the operation at Tygerberg hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. The team was composed of three senior doctors, anaesthetists, coordinators, nurses, a psychologist and an ethicist.
Although van der Merwe had anticipated that the patient will have to wait for a few years to regain all functionality back, he was surprised when, after just five weeks, the patient informed him that he was not only having erections but had also engaged in sexual intercourse.
"I was shocked. I didn't know what to say," recalls van der Merwe.
Van der Merwe was doubtful that early action might lead to blood-clotting, but he was more than just happy when he found that the patient was in robust health even after exercising what could be termed the toughest of jobs in such an early stage.
According to WVXU, the practice of traditional, ritual circumcisions is common practice of South Africa's Xhosa tribe. In ukwaluka, a rite-of-passage ritual, young men of around 18 year's age are circumcised by an incibi, a traditional tool.
The traditional circumcision can result in many issues, including excruciating pain, sepsis, mutilation, gangrene and excessive bleeding. Like many other cases, the young man also had to go through amputation, which is the only best option when the process goes awry.
Van der Merwe had applied microsurgery techniques to realign all parts of the penis, including blood vessels, nerves, urethra and related tissues. It was particularly important to realign the corpus cavernosum tissue that makes erections possible between the patient's stump and the donated penis.
Van der Merwe recalls that the critical factor in the surgery was to find how much scar tissue was there on the stump. The doctors' team rerouted an abdominal artery to the organ to settle the issue.