Boston: A cancer patient has received the first penis transplant in the United States, a Boston hospital said Monday. Massachusetts General Hospital has confirmed that Thomas Manning of Halifax, Massachusetts, received the transplanted penis in a 15-hour procedure last week. The organ was transplanted from a deceased donor. The New York Times first reported the transplant Monday.
Dr. Curtis Cetrulo, who helped lead the surgical team, tells the newspaper that normal urination should be possible for the 64-year-old Manning in a few weeks, with sexual function possible in weeks to months. The Times reports most of Manning's penis was removed during his battle with penile cancer. The world's first penis transplant was performed at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa in December 2014.
That patient had his penis amputated three years earlier after complications from a circumcision performed in his late teens. The university near Cape Town said in announcing the transplant in March 2015 that the 21-year-old patient, whose name was not released, made a full recovering following the nine-hour surgery and regained all function in the transplanted organ.
A man in China received a penis transplant in 2005. That operation also appeared to be successful, but doctors said the man asked them to remove his new penis two weeks later because of psychological problems experienced by him and his wife.
