A surgical team led by a doctor hailing from the island of Kefalonia has successfully performed the first uterus transplant in the US at the Cleveland Clinic.

The procedure, carried out by Dr Andreas G. Tzakis and his team, will give hope to millions of women who cannot conceive and give birth due to early hysterectomies, cancer or having been born without a uterus.

The operation is meant to allow such women to conceive and give birth before the organ is removed again after several years.

Dr. Tzakis has excelled in the field of intestinal and multivisceral transplantation, as well as pioneering several techniques in abdominal transplants for both children and adults.

He received his degree at the University of Athens’ School of Medicine in 1974, before going on to complete his surgical residency at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.

He has performed over 4,000 transplants and furthered research in organ transplant rejection and drug toxicity. He has published more than 700 peer-reviewed papers in several international medical journals. Since 2014, three babies have been born through uterus transplants which were first carried out in Sweden.