- The 20-year-old man’s testicle was forced into his own body
- In a 1.5-hour operation, doctors were able to surgically reposition it
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A man’s testicle was dislocated and thrown into his own body in a motorcycle accident.
The man, in his 20s, was rushed to the emergency room after his testicle was forced into his stomach in a road accident in Italy, causing excruciating pain.
His right testicle had been forced from its usual location in the scrotum – the thin sac of skin that holds the testicles in place – up into his stomach through a small passage in the groin.
It’s unusual for trauma to dislocate the testicles to the point where they leave the scrotum, doctors said BMJ case reports.
About 80 percent of reported cases involved men in their mid-20s who were in motorcycle accidents, a literature review found. Only in about six percent of cases do the testicles travel to the stomach.
His right testicle (circled in red) had been pushed up into his stomach from its usual location in the scrotum – the thin sac of skin that holds the testicles in place – through a small passage in the groin
The man in his 20s went to the emergency room after a traffic accident in Italy (archive photo)
The man had a large swelling of clotted blood in his scrotum, where the effects of the accident had caused blood to leak from the veins and arteries, so doctors were initially unable to properly examine his testicles.
After stopping the bleeding and removing the accumulated blood from his groin, they attended to his other injuries, including severe pelvic fractures, and checked that his bladder was intact.
Doctors used a CT scan to locate the dislocated testicle.
A CT scan is a computed tomography scan that combines a series of X-rays from different angles of the body.
The testicle had turned blue, so doctors warmed the testicle until it returned to its normal color and checked to make sure it was not completely severed.
In an hour and a half operation, doctors surgically repositioned the testicle.
They used a surgery called orchidopexy, which is also used in children to correct a common birth defect in which a testicle does not descend fully during early development.
Just six months later, the patient’s condition was back to normal, with no lasting impact on his fertility, hormone or sperm production.
In another case, after a motorcycle accident, it took nearly a year for a patient to be diagnosed with testicular dislocation because other injuries and blood accumulation made examination of the scrotum difficult.
Delayed treatment can have serious consequences and rapid diagnosis is required to minimize potential effects on fertility.
There are approximately 89,000 motorcycle accidents each year in the United States.
