CNN: Wounded Veteran Receives First Penis and Scrotum Transplant

(CNN) - The world's first successful total penis and scrotum transplant was completed at Johns Hopkins Hospital on March 26, according to a news release issued Monday.

The procedure lasted 14 hours and involved nine plastic surgeons, two urological surgeons and a team of anesthesiologists, nurses and surgical technicians, according to the release. The transplant recipient, who wished to remain anonymous, is a young US serviceman who sustained injuries to his lower pelvis, lower abdominal wall and lower extremities in an improvised explosive device blast while serving in Afghanistan.

"While war injuries cause great suffering, disfigurement and disability, they have also provided the impetus for medical discoveries," said Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, chairman of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Johns Hopkins University and one of the surgeons in the case, in a news briefing.

"While extremity amputations are visible and resultant disability obvious, some war injuries are hidden and their impact not widely appreciated by others," Lee added. "Genitourinary injury, where the male service members' external genitalia are lost or severely damaged, is one such 'unspoken injury of war.' "

In order to perform the transplant, the team had to obtain the necessary tissues -- consisting of a penis, scrotum and part of the lower abdominal wall -- from a deceased donor, according to Dr. Rick Redett, clinical director of the Johns Hopkins genitourinary transplant program and another surgeon on the case.

"To perform the transplant, we procured the necessary tissue from the donor to restore normal anatomy in the recipient," Redett said in a statement.

During the procedure, three arteries, four veins and two nerves were connected under...