STELLENBOSCH, South Africa — A South African university says it has performed a successful penis transplant.

The University of Stellenbosch said in a statement Friday that specialists from its medical faculty performed the nine-hour operation in December on a man who had his penis amputated three years ago.

It said the 21-year-old man "has made a full recovery and has regained all function in the newly transplanted organ."

The university said it was only the second time the procedure had been done. A man in China received a transplant in 2005 but that man asked surgeons to remove the new organ two weeks later.