A 41-year-old man was hospitalized after trying to treat his urinary incontinence by injecting super glue into his urethra. Urinary incontinence refers to the inability to control urine flow, and the man had been experiencing this issue for about a month before seeking medical help. In an attempt to stop the leaks, he used super glue, a strong adhesive commonly used for repairs, and injected it into his urethra over a two-week period. This led to severe symptoms, including pain above the pubic area, extreme discomfort while urinating, reduced urine output, and an inability to fully empty his bladder.
When he arrived at the hospital, the man admitted to using super glue as a self-treatment for his incontinence. A physical examination revealed a solid foreign object in his urethra, along with pieces of crumbling glue at the opening of the urethra, known as the meatus. Doctors attempted to examine the area using a cystoscopy, a procedure that uses a thin tube with a camera to look inside the urethra and bladder. However, the glue made the procedure difficult. As a result, an emergency surgery was performed to remove the hardened glue. Surgeons made a 2 cm incision on the glans (the head of the penis) and used 3 liters of saline solution to irrigate and clean the urethra. A 10 cm long piece of glue was successfully removed.
The man stayed in the hospital for five days and required a urinary catheter, a tube that helps drain urine from the bladder, for 10 days after being discharged. To prevent infection, he was given a course of preventive antibiotics. Six weeks after the surgery, he had a follow-up checkup to ensure his urinary function had returned to normal and that there were no complications. However, the underlying cause of his incontinence was not identified during the evaluation.
Doctors noted that inserting foreign objects into the urethra is a rare but documented behavior, often linked to seeking sexual stimulation. While the risks are significant, including serious infections or damage to the urinary tract, such cases are not unheard of. In the past, people have inserted a variety of objects into their urethra, including magnets, pencils, earphones, a fork, a thermometer, the ink reservoir of a ballpoint pen, the metal tip of a screwdriver, a USB cable, a tree branch, and even three AAA batteries.
Man Hospitalized After Using Super Glue to Treat Urinary Incontinence
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