57 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
57 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
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The following is the _Unusual_Case_ case column from the July 1991
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issue of the trade magazine _Medical_Aspects_of_Human_Sexuality_, by
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William A. Morton, Jr.
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Scrotum Self-Repair
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One morning I was called to the emergency room by the head ER nurse.
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She directed me to a patient who had refused to describe his problem
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other than to say that he "needed a doctor who took care of men's
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troubles." The patient, about 40, was pale, febrile, and obviously
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uncomfortable, and had little to say as he gingerly opened his
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trousers to expose a bit of angry red and black-and-blue scrotal skin.
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After I asked the nurse to leave us, the patient permitted me to
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remove his trousers, shorts, and two or three yards of foul-smelling
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stained gauze wrapped about his scrotum, which was swollen to twice
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the size of a grapefruit and extremely tender. A jagged zig-zag
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laceration, oozing pus and blood, extended down the left scrotum.
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Amid the matted hair, edematous skin, and various exudates, I saw some
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half-buried dark linear objects and asked the patient what they were.
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Several days earlier, he replied, he had injured himself in the
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machine shop where he worked, and had closed the laceration himself
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with a heavy-duty stapling gun. The dark objects were one-inch
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staples of the type used in putting up wallboard.
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We x-rayed the patient's scrotum to locate the staples; admitted him
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to the hospital; and gave him tetanus antitoxin, broad-spectrum
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antibacterial therapy, and hexachlorophene sitz baths prior to surgery
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the next morning. The procedure consisted of exploration and
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debridement of the left side of the scrotal pouch. Eight rusty
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staples were retrieved, and the skin edges were trimmed and freshened.
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The left testis had been avulsed and was missing. The stump of the
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spermatic cord was recovered at the inguinal canal, debrided, and the
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vessels ligated properly, though not much of a hematoma was present.
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Through-and-through Penrose drains were sutured loosely in site, and
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the skin was loosely closed.
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Convalescence was uneventful, and before his release from the hospital
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less than a week later, the patient confided the rest of his story to
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me. An unmarried loner, he usually didn't leave the machine shop at
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lunchtime with his coworkers. Finding himself alone, he had begun the
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regular practice of masturbating by holding his penis against the
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canvas drive-belt of a large floor-based piece of machinery. One day,
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as he approached orgasm, he lost his concentration and leaned too
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close to the belt. When his scrotum became caught between the pulley-
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wheel and the drive-belt, he was thrown into the air and landed a few
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feet away. Unaware that he had lost his left testis, and perhaps too
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stunned to feel much pain, he stapled the wound closed and resumed
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work. I can only assume he abandoned this method of self-
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gratification.
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[William A. Morton is a retired urologist residing in West Chester,
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Pennsylvania.]
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