Nine plastic surgeons and two urological surgeons operated on the veteran from Afghanistan

The world’s first complete penis and scrotum transplant has been done to a wounded soldier in the US, Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore announced. 

Nine plastic surgeons and two urological surgeons operated on the veteran from Afghanistan for 14 hours on March 26, Reuters reports.

The team transplanted an entire penis, a scrotum without testicles and a partial abdominal wall from a deceased donor. The wounded man, who requested anonymity, has recovered from the surgery and is expected to be discharged from the hospital this week.

We are hopeful that this transplant will help restore near-normal urinary and sexual functions for this young man,” Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, the head of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in the statement.

Lee said that although it is possible to reconstruct a penis using tissue from other body parts, a prosthesis implant would be necessary to achieve an erection, and that comes with a much higher rate of infection.

In addition, service personnel often do not have enough viable tissue from other parts of their bodies to use because of other injuries, he said.