Man's Penis Chopped and Mutilated: Can it be Reconstructed?

In a gruesome incident which brought back memories of the '90s Bobbitt case, a California woman handcuffed her husband, chopped of his penis and then mutilated the organ by putting it down the garbage disposal.

Catherine Kieu Becker, 48, was charged with a case of torture. She is alleged to have laced her 60-year old husband's dinner with drugs after which she proceeded to tie him to a bed with nylon ropes and then sliced his genitals off with a 10-inch knife. She later tossed the dismembered piece into a garbage disposal mutilating the organ.

She later called 911. The victim underwent surgery and is currently in a stable condition at the University of California's Irvine Medical Center.

The couple had initiated divorce proceedings in May. However, they were sharing the same condo and it is reported that an argument over friends staying in the same house resulted in the aggravated assault.

Kieu is held on a $1 million bail facing charges of false imprisonment, aggravated mayhem and torture.

An Orange County Superior Court judge assigned a public defender to represent Kieu and postponed her arraignment on the charges until July 22, Reuters reported.

The assault brings back memories of high-profile case in the '90s when in June 1993, a 24-year-old Lorena Bobbitt chopped off her husband, John Wayne Bobbitt and then drove in a car and threw the severed penis on the side of a road. The penis was later recovered and successfully reattached.

She had charged her husband of coming home drunk and sexually assaulting her on the fateful night. She was charged with malicious wounding. Lorena continued to maintain that she was a victim of domestic violence. Oprah.com reported that Lorena dropped her surname after the divorce and goes by her maiden name. She went on to launch an organization called Lorena's Red Wagon, which is dedicated to curbing domestic violence.

However, John Bobbitt went on to capitalize on his tragedy and starred in adult movies and celebrity boxing matches.

In cases of penis loss, reconstructive surgeries use tissue from forearm to reconstruct a penis. Surgeon4men states: Most authors currently agree that the free forearm flap is the gold standard for phalloplasty. A complete urethra can be reconstructed using a tube-into-tube technique. Sensitive innervation can be achieved by coaptation of the anterolateral and the anteromedial forearm nerves. Penile rigidity can be obtained by including in the flap a stick of the radial bone or by using a prosthesis.

Laurence Michael Dillon was the first one to go through a sex reassignment surgery which required phalloplasty. The surgery was performed by Harold Gillies, a New Zealand-born otolaryngologist.

Phallopasty refers to reconstruction of penis for treatment of penile trauma and cosmetic purposes.

Recently, Felici and Felici reported a new technique for phalloplasty in female-to-male sex reassignment operations in which anterolateral thigh (ALT) flap was used.