18 September 2006

Penis transplant gets the chop

I never thought I would be able to make a joke about strapadictomies but now I get the opportunity it seems somehow hollow…. It does seem odd at first that someone would seek to have a transplant removed but a major operation like this comes with a heavy psychological price.

According to the Guardian and several other papers today, Chinese surgeons performed the world's first penis transplant on a man whose organ was damaged beyond repair in an accident this year. Apparently the incident left the man with a 1cm-long stump with which he was unable to urinate or have sexual intercourse. "His quality of life was affected severely," said Dr Weilie Hu, a surgeon at Guangzhou General Hospital.

According to the People’s Daily online dated 22 September 2005 surgeons at the Guangzhou General Hospital of the Guangzhou Military Area Command did a 7hour operation (15 hours according to the Guardian et al) , implanting for the for the first time an allogeneic (genetically different but from the same species) penis for a man who lost his in an accident after over-drinking in 2004. The operation took place on 20 September 2005.

Leaving aside the discrepancies over the date and duration of the operation the procedure, described in a case study due to appear in the journal European Urology next month, represents a big leap forward in transplant surgery; it required complex microsurgery to connect nerves and tiny blood vessels. The surgical team claimed the operation was a success. After 10 days, tests revealed the organ had a rich blood supply and the man was able to urinate normally. Although the operation was a surgical success, surgeons said they had to remove the penis two weeks later. "Because of a severe psychological problem of the recipient and his wife, the transplanted penis regretfully had to be cut off," Dr Hu said. An examination of the organ showed no signs of it being rejected by the body.

Jean-Michel Dubernard, the surgeon who performed the world's first face transplant said psychological factors were a serious issue for many patients in such circumstances. "Psychological consequences of hand and face allografts show that it is not so easy to use and see permanently a dead person's hands, nor is it easy to look in a mirror to see a dead person's face," he wrote in the journal. "Clearly, in the Chinese case the failure at a very early stage was first psychological.”

In 2001, surgeons were forced to amputate the world's first transplanted hand from Clint Hallam, a 50-year-old New Zealander, who said he wanted the "hideous and withered" hand removed because he had become "mentally detached" from it. The original transplant was conducted by Prof Dubernard's team at the Edouard Herriot Hospital in Lyons, who have since performed the world's first double arm transplant.



10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The stuff that horror movies are made of!

I'm trying hard not to imagine what it would be like to have "a dead man's penis".

elasticwaistbandlady said...

I want to hear stories of every amputees and John Bobitt's worst symptoms; "Phantom Penis."

By the way, jams, back in my more "varied" days of musical splendor when I could listen to possibly objectionable material without young ears prying in, one song was my particular favorite. I played it all summer back in 1992 or so on my Geo Metro cassette deck. I thought I was the shiz. In a gray Geo Metro. Yeah. :(
Anyway, it's KING MISSILE-DETACHABLE PENIS. So, very amusing. I should have matured since 1992, wouldn't you think?

billie said...

huh. guess that's why women get saline implants.

jams o donnell said...

I hope never to find out Roger! Seriously it seems odd that one would reject something as good as a transplant but I daresay it is a different thing to get a new organ which is out of sight than it is to get something you can see and touch. I supose it must generate a sort of dysphoria.. I would say Alien hand syndrome (or alien dick!)but that is already taken.....

jams o donnell said...

Phantom penis and an alien hand... now that could be a thought to banish from my mind permanently!!

Wow ewbl I had never seen that song before.. hmm most definitely not one to play to the kids, eh.. I must hadmit I did have a fear that if we ever were to have kids they would grow up to listen to nice sensible Nana Miskouri songs and the like (the HORROR!)

A Geo Metro? we never got those here.. I imagine it was the size of my Toyota Starlet.. I had one in the late 80s.. Nice enough car esopecially since it was free!

jams o donnell said...

Hmm I gather there is a procedure to make the penis fatter by injecting fat into it... Why anyone would want to do that beats me but I digress

elasticwaistbandlady said...

Admit it jams, Detachable Penis just made your all time favorite song list. I bet you're humming it right now, in fact.

Geo is a division of Chevrolet. The Metro had a mighty 3 cylinder engine and a 9 gallon gas tank. I used to recite "The Little Engine That Could" whenever driving up Houston's steep freeway inclines. "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....."

Bob said...

What a macabre discussion!

jams o donnell said...

Hah it has its charms, true.. Dammit now it will be in my head for the next few days....

Ah I remember the Geo getting name checked in the Simpsons for its less that massive ability to accelterate.. Just like a Toyota Starlet! The Starlet used to slow down considerably on the steeper inclines on the M25 (the orbital motorway around London)

jams o donnell said...

But compelling, Fraser?????????