THREE MEN, THEIR HAEMORRHOIDS, INJECTIONS AND TALES OF WOE
There are three men in the United Kingdom who wish they’d never had their haemorrhoids treated.
These men went in for a fairly standard haemorrhoid procedure and came away permanently impotent.
According to the British Medical Journal, which reported their cases, all three felt immediate pain when their haemorrhoids were injected. Within a few hours they all had a range of unpleasant symptoms, including blood in their urine, frequency, pelvic pain and an aching testis. Within a few days they had even worse news. They had all become impotent.
The report suggests that their doctor may have misdirected the needle and given the injection too deep and too high. Instead of injecting the needle just under the haemorrhoids, the doctor may have injected it into the prostate or the veins surrounding the prostate.
The men were injected with a sclerosing agent mixed with oil. Sclerosant is supposed to cause clotting in the haemorrhoids, while oil is used to ensure the sclerosant stays in one place and doesn’t travel around the body and cause damage elsewhere.
When these men were injected in or near the prostate, the sclerosant, restricted by the oil, did its destructive work in the wrong place. It is thought the nerves that control the erectile tissue of the penis were destroyed in this way.
Sclerotherapy for haemorrhoids has been practised for almost a century Although prostatic abscesses, chronic cystitis and blood in the sperm have been noted as possible complications of the procedure, this was the first time impotence had been recognised as a consequence.
Before the injections, all three men had had normal spontaneous night-time and waking erections. A year after the injections, one of the men, who was 67, remained unable to achieve any form of erection, but his urinary symptoms had cleared up. The second man, aged 52, also received successful treatment for his urinary symptoms but 6 months later was still impotent. A year after the injections the third man, who was 46, was not only impotent but was still on medication to treat the urinary problems that had arisen after the injection.
These cases highlight the importance of using correct injecting techniques. If injections arc given correctly and in the right place, it is unlikely that urological complications will arise.
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