Man, 41, superglues his penis shut and must have ’10cm block’ eliminated
A 41-year-old man who tried to stop bladder leaks by dripping superglue into his urethra ended up unable to urinate and needed surgeons to remove a 10cm (nearly 4-inch) hardened “block” from his penis
A man who tried to cure his bladder leaks by pouring superglue into his penis ended up in hospital(Image: Getty Images)
A man who tried to cure his bladder leaks by pouring superglue into his penis ended up in hospital needing surgeons to remove a 10cm (nearly 4-inch) hardened block after it became solid and left him unable to urinate.
The extraordinary case involved a 41-year-old man in Iran, who had been suffering urinary incontinence – involuntary leakage – for around a month, according to a clinical report published in the Caspian Journal of Internal Medicine.
In a desperate DIY “fix”, the patient reportedly dripped household superglue into his urethra (the tube that carries urine out of the body) over a period of two weeks, hoping it would physically seal the leak.
Surgeons removed a 10cm (nearly 4-inch) hardened block after the glue became solid(Image: Getty Images)
At first, it seemed to work. The leakage stopped – at least temporarily.
But within four days of ending the applications, the glue fully cured into a dense plug. His urine flow quickly slowed to a trickle before turning into complete urinary retention, meaning he couldn’t pee at all – a condition that can cause severe pain and dangerous complications.
The man then endured a full week of constant pain above his pubic bone and in his lower abdomen before finally going to an outpatient clinic, the New York Post reported. Doctors were stunned by what they found.
The hardened block left him unable to urinate(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
On examination, his penis was erect and they could feel a rigid foreign object under the skin. They also saw brittle fragments of dried glue at the opening.
The man reportedly ended up on the operating table and had a “10 cm rod-shaped solid block” removed from his penis. Urologists first tried a cystoscopy – inserting a small camera into the urethra – but the passage was totally blocked.
And while solvents like acetone can sometimes dissolve superglue in places like the ear or nose, doctors said they couldn’t use chemicals here. As Live Science noted: “Urethra tissue is very delicate, and inserting anything into this sensitive tube risks damaging it, which can lead to serious infection.”
The extraordinary case involved a 41-year-old man in Iran(Image: Getty Images)
Insertion of foreign bodies is painful, making the practice “relatively rare”, the report’s authors wrote. Surgeons instead made an incision at the head of the penis, flushed the area with saline for 15 minutes to loosen the glue, then extracted the 10cm block in one piece using forceps.
The paper called the superglue method “unusual” and noted it was only the fourth reported case of superglue in the urethra in medical literature. While many cases involving foreign objects are linked to sexual gratification, substance abuse or psychological distress, doctors confirmed this patient had no history of psychiatric disorders and acted out of misinformed desperation.
After stitches, his normal urine flow returned immediately – and he made a full recovery six weeks later.
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