1115.org

From the cutting edge of the world of medicine:

A man who had the world’s first successful penis transplant had to have the organ removed two weeks later because of a problem with his wife.

The 44-year-old father of three children was left with a 0.4 in stump and was unable to urinate or have intercourse after being involved in a car accident.

Surgeons at Guangzhou General Hospital, in China, spent 15 hours attaching a 4 in organ taken from a brain-dead 22-year-old man after his parents agreed.

The surgical team claimed the operation was a success. They said that, after 10 days, blood was flowing into the transplanted penis, that there was no sign of the patient’s body rejecting it and that the man was able to urinate normally.

However, in next month’s issue of the journal European Urology, they report that they had to remove the organ because of “a severe psychological problem of the recipient and his wife”.

Dr Weilie Hu, one of the surgeons involved in the operation, writes: “The recipient could urinate smoothly in a standing position at day 10 after removal of the catheter.”

Doctors have previously reconnected severed penises after accidents or attacks but this was thought to be the first time surgeons had claimed a successful transplant.

Local media referred to the man by the pseudonym Zhang and said that he was able to sustain an erection immediately after the operation, which took place a year ago. The operation was said to have cost £3,500.