Man has penis amputated after week-long erection turns out to be a rare sign of cancer
A 63-year-old man was forced to have his entire penis amputated after enduring a week-long erection.
The unnamed patient told doctors in Indonesia his painful erection began randomly – and wasn’t due to any sexual stimulation.
Any erection that lasts longer than four hours is deemed a medical emergency; the condition is known as priapism.
A fortnight earlier, the man had visited the hospital with pain just below his ribs and unexplained weight loss.
Tests revealed that he was suffering from a form of kidney cancer, known as high-grade renal carcinoma, the medics wrote in Science Direct.
It happens when abnormal cells start to divide and grow uncontrolled.
If it’s found early, kidney cancer can often be cured, but this may not be possible if it’s diagnosed after it has spread beyond the kidneys.
Surgeons at Prof. Dr. I.G.N.G Ngoerah General Hospital, Bali, Indonesia, first tried to drain blood from the penis in an attempt to ease the erection – which didn’t work.
The doctors then put in a shunt to help with blood flow in the penis.
After some further scans, the doctors discovered the cancer had spread into his penis, and decided to amputate it to halt the spread of the disease.
After the surgery, the patient was treated with radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Three months after the surgery, the doctors described the man as having “no abnormalities in urination and no significant complaints”.
Around 13,300 kidney cancers are diagnosed in the UK each year, CRUK says.
There are about 4,700 deaths annually – or 13 every day.
It is the seventh most common cancer in the UK.
How it is treated depends on what type of kidney cancer you have, where it is and how big it is, if it has spread, and your general health.
Surgery, cryotherapy, radiofrequency ablation, targeted medicines, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are all options.
The dangers of priapism
An erection that lasts any longer than four hours, medically known as priapism, is deemed a medical emergency.
In such cases, erections don’t subside after ejaculation and aren’t always triggered by sexual stimulation, the NHS states.
The painful condition, considered rare, can be triggered by anything that disrupts the flow of blood out of the penis – as well as some forms of cancer.
Doctors usually recommend the gruesome tactic of using a needle and syringe to drain blood out of the penis for patients.
Symptoms of kidney cancer
Kidney cancer, also called renal cancer, is one of the most common in the UK.
Generally it affects people in their 60s or 70s, and is quite rare in the under-50s.
Symptoms include:
- a persistent pain in your lower back or side, just below your ribs
- a lump or swelling in your side (although kidney cancer is often too small to feel)
- blood in your pee
- extreme tiredness
- loss of appetite and unintentional weight loss
- high blood pressure
- high temperature
- night sweats
- swollen neck glands
- bone pain
- coughing up blood
- in men – swelling in the testicles
Source: NHS