Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.960228131836.1427B-100000@wilbur> Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 13:19:55 -0500 From: "J. Thompson Allred" <mailto:web480@CHARWEB.ORG> Subject: This can happen anywhere! To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
_Medical_Aspects_of_Human_Sexuality_, byWilliam A. Morton, Jr.Scrotum Self-Repair
One morning I was called to the emergency room by the head ER nurse.She directed me to a patient who had refused to describe his problemother than to say that he "needed a doctor who took care of men'stroubles." The patient, about 40, was pale, febrile, and obviouslyuncomfortable, and had little to say as he gingerly opened histrousers to expose a bit of angry red and black-and-blue scrotal skin.After I asked the nurse to leave us, the patient permitted me toremove his trousers, shorts, and two or three yards of foul-smellingstained gauze wrapped about his scrotum, which was swollen to twicethe size of a grapefruit and extremely tender. A jagged zig-zaglaceration, oozing pus and blood, extended down the left scrotum.Amid the matted hair, edematous skin, and various exudates, I saw somehalf-buried dark linear objects and asked the patient what they were.Several days earlier, he replied, he had injured himself in themachine shop where he worked, and had closed the laceration himselfwith a heavy-duty stapling gun. The dark objects were one-inchstaples of the type used in putting up wallboard.We x-rayed the patient's scrotum to locate the staples; admitted himto the hospital; and gave him tetanus antitoxin, broad-spectrumantibacterial therapy, and hexachlorophene sitz baths prior to surgerythe next morning. The procedure consisted of exploration anddebridement of the left side of the scrotal pouch. Eight rustystaples were retrieved, and the skin edges were trimmed and freshened.The left testis had been avulsed and was missing. The stump of thespermatic cord was recovered at the inguinal canal, debrided, and thevessels ligated properly, though not much of a hematoma was present.Through-and-through Penrose drains were sutured loosely in site, andthe skin was loosely closed.Convalescence was uneventful, and before his release from the hospitalless than a week later, the patient confided the rest of his story tome. An unmarried loner, he usually didn't leave the machine shop atlunchtime with his coworkers. Finding himself alone, he had begun theregular practice of masturbating by holding his penis against thecanvas drive-belt of a large floor-based piece of machinery. One day,as he approached orgasm, he lost his concentration and leaned tooclose to the belt. When his scrotum became caught between the pulley-wheel and the drive-belt, he was thrown into the air and landed a fewfeet away. Unaware that he had lost his left testis, and perhaps toostunned to feel much pain, he stapled the wound closed and resumedwork. I can only assume he abandoned this method of self-gratification.[William A. Morton is a retired urologist residing in West Chester,Pennsylvania.]