Penis transplantation

Editor-in-Chief: Joel Gelman, M.D. [mailto:jgelman@uci.edu],  Director of the Center for Reconstructive Urology and Associate    Clinical Professor in the Department of Urology at the University of    California, Irvine

Overview
Penis transplantation is a surgical transplant procedure in which a replacement penis, either one grown artificially (untested in humans) or from a deceased human donor (allograft), is transplanted onto a patient. In a similar fashion to other peripheral transplant procedures such as hand transplant and face transplant surgery, using a penis from a deceased donor is controversial because it is not necessary to ensure the life of the patient.

Allotransplant procedure
The patient will have typically lost their penis, either through felonious assault, accidental injury or self-mutilation, or possibly have a birth defect causing disfigurement or total loss of the penis. The procedure was first performed successfully in September 2005 at a military hospital in Guangzhou, China. The patient, a 44-year-old male, had sustained partial penis loss. The penis came from a 23-year-old brain-dead male. Although successful, the patient and his wife suffered psychological trauma as a result of the procedure and later had the surgery reversed.

Lab grown penis
A possible alternative to the allotransplant is growing a penis artificially in a laboratory. Although not yet trialled in humans, in 2006 researchers succeeded in replacing a rabbit's penis with one grown in a laboratory. The penises were grown on a matrix from the rabbit's own cells, and contained nerves and blood vessels allowing them to become fully functional.

In fiction

 * Penis transplantation was the subject of the early-1970s comedies, Percy, and Percy's Progress.
 * The pilot episode of Max Headroom makes references to the harvesting of a complete set of male genitalia for the purpose of transplantation. This is a throwaway joke heard on the radio after it has been established that dead bodies in this future society are turned over to organ harvesters.
 * The Hong Kong erotic comedy film Sex and Zen features a penis transplantation.