Aphalia is a rare disorder and only around 100 cases have been reported so far around the world.

Honorary paediatric urologist Dr S B Mane and Head of the department of paediatric surgery Dr Nitin Dhende, who led the surgery team, said that both patients are recovering and doing well.

The patients, an eight-year-old and a 13-year-old were admitted to the paediatric surgery ward last month.

Apart from the absence of penis, the children also had another problem: the urethra or the urinary tube ended near the anal opening. Pre-surgery tests showed both were male despite the absence of external male organs.

"Doctors explained to the parents of the eight-year-old that even if the child gets an artificial penis, he could never become a biological father," Dhende said.

With the parents' consent, doctors then removed the testicles from the scrotum and created in its place, a `clitoris'. The new genitalia was constructed from the child's intestine.

"The urethra, which was earlier near the anus, was connected to the clitoris making it possible for the child to pass urine through this genitalia", Dhende said. The surgery lasted three hours.

In the case of the 13-year old child, who passed urine from an opening near the anus, doctors made a tube resembling the penis, using bladder mucosa.

They connected the urethra to the tip of this penis, which was reconstructed by plastic surgeons at the Hospital earlier, allowing the child to pass urine through the opening.