Man’s penis FELL OFF at home after rotting away when routine op went wrong
After part of the man's member fell off at home, doctors were forced to remove the rest in surgery
PART of a man's penis fell off at home after a complication during surgery caused it to rot away.
The unnamed 65-year-old went to hospital ten days after his member started to turn black.
Doctors at King George’s Medical University Hospital in India cut away the rotting flesh, dressed the wound and the patient was sent home.
But the gangrene began to spread again and two weeks later part of the shaft of his penis "autoamputated" - or fell off on its own.
The man was told he would need surgery to save the rest of his penis.
Two weeks earlier, the man had an operation to remove his thyroid - a gland in the throat - after doctors had discovered a cancerous tumour.
While he was unconscious on the operating table doctors inserted a catheter so he could pee, but during several attempts to insert the tube they damaged the man's urethra.
The trauma triggered a condition called Fournier's gangrene - a "flesh-eating bug" of the genitals - and his manhood started to rot.
Before doctors could perform surgery to save the man's penis they had to check how much of his urethra - the tube you pee out of - had been damaged.
The length of urethra, outside the man's body, from the tip of the penis to the bottom of the shaft had completely disintegrated.
By the time doctors operated most of his penis had rotted away.
Doctors were able to save the healthy parts of his urethra, so he can still wee normally, but his entire penis had to be removed.
Fournier’s gangrene is an extremely rare but life-threatening bacterial infection of the tissue under the skin that surrounds muscles, nerves, fat, and blood vessels of the perineum - the part between the penis or vagina and rectum.
The bacteria usually get into the body through a cut or break in the skin and quickly begins to spread and destroy the tissue.
Usually, it involves the male scrotum and may extend to the penis and abdominal wall, but isolated cases in the penis are rare, Dr Siddharth Pandey wrote in the BMJ case report.
"The inciting factor for isolated Fournier’s gangrene of penis may be periurethral abscess following trauma due to catheterisation or other instruments, penile injury during oral sex, anal intercourse and self injection of cocaine in the penis," Dr Pandey wrote.
"In our patient, there were attempts at placing a catheter that caused trauma leading to Fournier’s gangrene.
MORE CASE REPORTS
"Postoperatively, there was decreased immunity and the patient had a malignancy [cancer] which might have contributed to him developing this condition, as immune-compromised status has been implicated as a causative factor.
"This might also have been the reason for progression to autoamputation of the penis."
Most cases of Fournier's gangrene can be treated by cutting away the rotting flesh, Dr Pandey added.
But in extreme cases, like this patients, a total penis amputation is necessary.
It is believed to be the third ever case of Fournier's gangrene leading to total penis amputation.
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