Dementia patient STRANGLES his penis leaving it rotting after wrapping rubber bands around it
AN 81-year-old man with dementia strangled his penis after wrapping rubber bands around it, docs have revealed.
The bands were wrapped tightly around the penis for three days, causing the flesh to rot.
Doctors were only made aware of the situation after the unnamed man came to hospital for a different reason.
Had it been any longer and it's possible the unfortunate man’s penis would have died, needing amputation.
The case was reported in the medical journal , led by a team of medics at Chicago Medical School.
They said the African American male who had a history of dementia and diabetes came to see medics with confusion and diabetic ketoacidosis.
Diabetic ketoacidosis is a serious and life threatening complication when the body runs out of insulin. It can happen when the condition is not controlled properly.
But it wasn’t long before the man’s bulbous penis was uncovered.
His wife said the two rubber bands had been around the base of the penis for two or three days, and it is not clear if she had tried to remove them.
The bands had cut off the blood supply to his member, which was swollen. But the tissue had not yet reached necrosis - tissue death.
Penile constriction devices comprise numerous objects such as rings, metal tubing, ball bearings, bottles, rubber bands and more
Chicago Medical School medics
But incredibly the man denied having any pain or issues urinating.
Five days later, the man’s condition had worsened despite the bands having been immediately cut off.
Images published in the journal show yellow and purple lesions on the shaft of the penis above where the rubber band had sat.
The male was wheeled into surgery where doctors treated the wounds and removed any sign of infection and rotting tissue.
“Electrocautery and sharp dissection” was used on the man’s organ - a procedure that uses heat from an electric current to destroy abnormal tissue, before it is scraped out.
For a few days, the man was given a catheter — a tube put through the urethra —to help drain urine from his bladder.
He started to show signs of recovery five days after surgery and was discharged home, but failed to turn up for a follow up two weeks later.
Rare but serious
“Penile strangulation” is rare, the docs said, but an emergency.
It can happen in adults and children, with numerous objects described in medical literature including bottles, rings and rubber bands.
Penile Hair Tourniquet Syndrome is when hair gets wrapped around the penis, most commonly seen in young boys.
In teens and adults, sexual exploration often leads to penile strangulation as well as ill mental health.
Dementia - a disease that robs those suffering of their memory - can cause patients to behave in strange ways, often inappropriately.
Penile strangulation can be classified under five grades, which are:
- Grade 1: Swelling.
- Grade 2: Trauma to the skin, decreased sensation.
- Grade 3: Same as above but with injury to the urethra.
- Grade 4: “Division of corpus spongiosum” (spongy tissue at the tip of the penis) leading to a urinary fistula (opening in the urinary tract).
- Grade 5: Gangrene, necrosis, or complete amputation of the penis.
In this man’s case, he was seen while he had a Grade 1 injury but he progressed to Grade 3.
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His “likely history of uncontrolled diabetes” would have progressed his disease much quicker, docs said.
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Diabetes impacts blood flow, and therefore likely exacerbated the penile strangulation.
As a warning to other medics, Karan Pandher, the first author of the case report, said it's important to identify any factors that make penile strangulation worse.