Wounded warrior to get first US penis transplant

Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital have said that an American soldier wounded by an explosion will be the first person in the U.S. to receive a penis transplant. They also said that up to 60 more injured veterans may undergo the procedure.

For privacy reasons, the hospital has not identified the patient beyond describing him as "a soldier injured by an explosion."

IEDs do a lot of damage to lower extremities, including the penis. The New York Times reported in Dec. 2015 that almost 1,367 men were wounded in the genitals in Iraq and Afghanistan. The team at Johns Hopkins hopes to pioneer the treatment for them.

The donor organ will be taken from a recently deceased man with similar skin color and age to the patient, according to Business Insider. After the surgery, the patient will need a few months before they have full use of the organ. Sensation, urination, and sexual arousal are all possible over time.

Only one successful penis transplant has ever been performed. A South African team worked for nine hours to complete the surgery, and the patient was able to conceive his first child less than a year later.

Since the testicles are not transplanted, any baby conceived by a penis transplant patient would be the biological child of the patient, not the donor.

While the testicles will not be transplanted, other parts of the body may have to be. Blast patients may need scrotum, groin, abdominal, and inner thigh tissue transplanted, Business Insider reported.