http://www.afpbb.com/articles/-/3042454
世界初、陰茎移植に成功 機能も完全に回復 南アフリカ
2015年03月14日 13:18 発信地：ヨハネスブルク/南アフリカ
【3月14日 AFP】南アフリカ・ステレンボッシュ大学（Stellenbosch University）の医師団は13日、世界で初めて陰茎の移植手術に成功したと発表した。
3年ほど前に割礼の失敗が原因で陰茎の切断手術を受けた21歳の男性患者は昨年12月11日、ケープタウン（Cape Town）のタイガーバーグ病院（Tygerberg Hospital）でおよそ9時間に及ぶ移植手術を受けていた。男性の身元は明らかにされていない。
男性は手術以降、排せつ機能と生殖機能のいずれも完全に回復したという。医師らはこの手術について、性器を提供したドナーの遺族らに称賛の言葉を贈った。
ステレンボッシュ大学医学部の形成外科学主任教授、フランク・グラウィ（Frank Graewe）氏は、「失われた臓器と同じくらい良い臓器を患者に与えることが可能であることを証明した」と説明。同大学泌尿器科学主任教授のアンドレ・ファンデルメルベ（Andre van der Merwe）氏は、「2年後までの完全回復を目指していたのだが、短期間で回復したことに非常に驚いている」と話した。(c)AFP/Kristen VAN SCHIE
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/penis-transplant-stellenbosch-university-performs-first-successful-surgery-1.10057456
Stellenbosch University performs first successful penis tranplant surgery
Updated March 13, 2015 7:44 PM
By BLOOMBERG
Health News
Stellenbosch University performs first successful penis tranplant surgery
Updated March 13, 2015 7:44 PM
By BLOOMBERG
Surgeons from Stellenbosch University and Cape Town’s Tygerberg Hospital have performed the world’s first successful penis transplant.
The nine-hour operation was performed Dec. 11 on the 21- year-old recipient, who made a full recovery and regained all functions in the transplanted organ, the South African university said in a statement Friday.
The patient, whose identity wasn’t disclosed, had his penis amputated three years ago in order to save his life when he developed complications after a traditional circumcision. There are an estimated 250 penile amputations each year in South Africa stemming from circumcisions, the university said.
“Our goal was that he would be fully functional at two years and we are very surprised by his rapid recovery,” said Andre van der Merwe, head of the university’s Division of Urology, who led the team during the operation.
It is the second time this type of operation was attempted and the first time that a successful long-term result was achieved, the university said.
“There is a greater need in South Africa for this type of procedure than elsewhere in the world, as many young men lose their penises every year due to complications from traditional circumcision,” said Van der Merwe.
“It helps a community of men,” Van der Merwe said in a phone interview. “These men have lost their penises in traditional circumcision. Nobody talks about them, they’re ostracized, they’re stigmatized and this is good news for them.”
Clinical Trial
South Africa is also home to the first heart transplant, which took place in 1967 at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.
The patient who received the penile transplant is sexually active and will be able to have children if he chooses, Van der Merwe said. Doctors will monitor him for another three months before they operate on any of nine other men awaiting a penile transplant as part of a clinical trial Van der Merwe and his team started in 2010.
The first transplant took so long, in part, because families didn’t want to donate their relatives’ penises, he said.
“In South Africa, the law is even if you are an organ donor, you’re not allowed to harvest any organs from that patient unless the family consents,” he said in the interview.
Organ Donors
Van der Merwe and his team were able to convince a family after deciding they could make a penis-like appendage on the corpse using a leftover skin flap.
“The family is much happier to send the body to the grave with something resembling a penis,” he said.
The transplanted penis wasn’t circumcised and it will be at least several months before the patient can return for the medical procedure since he’s now taking immunosuppressant drugs necessary to prevent rejection of the new body part.
Traditional male circumcision is a cultural initiation rite practiced by certain ethnic groups in South Africa, including the Xhosa and Ndebele. They often aren’t done in sterile environments and complications can occur including infection, gangrene
and genital mutilation.
In the Eastern Cape Province, where the practice is common, there were 9 amputations of the penis and 43 deaths in 2013, according to a provincial department of health report.
Circumcision at birth isn’t a normal practice in South Africa, said Beth Skorochod, deputy director of HIV/TB at PSI, a global health organization based in Washington.
The rite of passage involved in traditional circumcision is different from a push the last several years by groups like PSI to get men, typically those 25 and older, to undergo the surgery in a medical setting as an HIV prevention method.
Circumcision reduces a man’s risk of contracting HIV by 60 percent, Skorochod said in an interview.
—With assistance from Paul Burkhardt in Johannesburg.
