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Male genital trauma at a level 1 trauma center

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Abstract

Objectives

To describe our experience with men admitted to a tertiary care hospital with genital injury.

Methods

Adult men with injuries of the genitals, admitted to our institution between January 2013 and June 2018, were identified from our institutional trauma registry. Patient charts were queried to extract mechanism, management, follow-up, and complications.

Results

118 men met inclusion criteria. 39% and 61% sustained penetrating and blunt injuries, respectively. The most common mechanisms of penetrating trauma were external violence (48%) and self-inflicted injury (40%). The most common mechanisms of blunt trauma were motorcycle crash (33%) and sexual injury/intercourse (22%). 38% presented with penile and 71% with scrotal injuries. 48% of men with scrotal injuries had concomitant testis injury. 9.3% presented with both a penile and a scrotal injury. Concomitant urethral injuries were found in 17% of all genital injuries. Genital trauma was more common in the summer months. 74% of all genital injuries were managed operatively, with surgery more common after penetrating injury (89% vs 64%, p value < 0.01). 73% of 84 men with scrotal trauma were managed operatively. 27 men received surgical intervention for testis rupture, with a testicular salvage rate of 44%. 60 (51%) patients presented for follow-up. The median length of follow-up from initial injury was 29 (± 250) days. Of these, 9 (15%) patients developed one or more complications

Conclusions

Genital injuries can occur via numerous mechanisms and frequently require operative intervention. Concomitant urethral injury is common. More work is needed to evaluate the long-term sequelae of these injuries.

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Acknowledgements

Hunter B. Wessells for his contribution of patients to our study. Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center.

Funding

None.

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Author notes

  1. Bryan B. Voelzke

    Present address: Spokane Urology, Spokane, WA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington, 325 9th Ave, Box 359868, Seattle, WA, 98104, USA

    Connor S. McCormick, Mitchell G. Dumais, Niels V. Johnsen, Bryan B. Voelzke & Judith C. Hagedorn

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  1. Connor S. McCormick
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  2. Mitchell G. Dumais
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Contributions

CSM manuscript writing, data collection, data analysis. MGD manuscript writing, data collection. NVJ manuscript writing, data collection, data analysis. BBV project development. JCH project development, data collection. All: critical revision of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Judith C. Hagedorn.

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Conflict of interest

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Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University of Washington Institutional Review Board (approval number: 49684; 9/5/2018-9/4/2021) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

This study was a retrospective chart review, used to compile a de-identified database. No identifying personal information or characteristics were collected.

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McCormick, C.S., Dumais, M.G., Johnsen, N.V. et al. Male genital trauma at a level 1 trauma center. World J Urol 38, 3283–3289 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-020-03115-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-020-03115-0

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