WALTHAM – Drs. Curtis Cetrulo and Dicken Ko, along with Thomas Manning, their patient, are being honored by the Massachusetts Medical Society as the 2018 recipients of the Society’s Men’s Health Award, an honor recognizing an individual who has advanced the cause of men’s health. This year, however, the Society was
compelled to select two doctors and their patient.
Cetrulo and Ko performed on Manning a procedure called a genitourinary vascularized composite allograft (GUVCA) transplant, the nation’s first genitourinary reconstructive (penile) transplant.
Cetrulo is from the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital; Ko was a transplant surgeon and a urologist at MGH and Manning, their patient, is from Halifax.
Manning was involved in an industrial accident in 2012 and suffered injuries that affected his genitals. Examination of the injury serendipitously revealed something more dire – Manning had penile cancer and the best course of treatment and survival was amputation.
The procedure represents the culmination of more than 3.5 years of research and collaboration across multiple departments and divisions within the MGH – including Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Urology, Psychiatry, Infectious Disease, Nursing, and Social Work –
all of which are part of the MGH Transplant Center.
Cetrulo and Dr. Ko together began researching the possibility of performing a GUVCA transplant in 2012, shortly after an MGH team led by Cetrulo completed its first hand transplant. Working closely with New England Donor Services, both surgeons developed key strategic surgical approaches aimed at
helping patients with devastating genitourinary injuries.
