A team of US surgeons has performed the world’s first in-human bladder transplant, it was announced today. Surgeons in Southern California have performed the first human bladder transplant, introducing a new, potentially life-changing procedure for people with debilitating bladder conditions.

The operation was performed earlier this month by a pair of surgeons from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California on a 41-year-old man who had lost much of his bladder capacity from treatments for a rare form of bladder cancer. Dr Inderbir Gill, who performed the surgery along with Dr Nima Nassiri, called it ‘the realisation of a dream’ for treating thousands of patients with crippling pelvic pain, inflammation and recurrent infections. Dr Gill said this surgery is a historic moment in medicine and stands to impact how they manage carefully selected patients with highly symptomatic ‘terminal’ bladders that are no longer functioning.

The doctors plan to perform bladder transplants in four more patients as part of a clinical trial to get a sense of outcomes like bladder capacity and graft complications before pursuing a larger trial to expand its use.