Surgeons perform a first human bladder transplant

South Surgeons of California carried out the first human bladder transplant, introducing a potentially new procedure that changes their life for people with debilitating bladder conditions.

The operation was carried out earlier this month by a pair of surgeons from the University of California in Los Angeles and the University of South California on a 41-year-old man who had lost a large part of his capacity for the bladder of treatments for a rare form of bladder cancer.

“I was a time bomb,” said the patient on Thursday Oscar Larrainzar during a follow-up meeting with his doctors. “But now I have hope.”

Doctors plan to carry out bladder transplants in four other patients as part of a clinical trial to obtain a feeling of results such as the capacity of the bladder and the transplant complications before continuing a more important trial to extend its use.

Dr. Inderbir Gill, who carried out surgery with Dr. Nima Nassiri, called him “realizing a dream” to treat thousands of patients with paralyzing pelvic pain, inflammation and recurring infections.

“There is no doubt: a potential door has been opened for these people who did not exist earlier,” said Dr. Gill, president of the USC urology department