Iranian man puts superglue in urethra to stop incontinence — surgery required
A 41-year-old Iranian man with urinary incontinence used superglue in his urethra for two weeks to stop leakage, but the adhesive hardened and blocked the urinary tract, requiring surgical removal.
A medical case report highlighted by Live Science describes an unusual self-treatment attempt by a 41-year-old man from Iran. The man had been experiencing urinary incontinence for about a month before seeking medical help. Instead of consulting a doctor, he decided to insert superglue into his urethra in hopes of stopping the involuntary leakage.
At first, the method seemed to work. After about four days, however, his condition worsened: urine output became smaller and urination became painful. Even after stopping the use of glue, there was no improvement. When the man finally arrived at a clinic, he had severe discomfort, pain above the pubic bone, a very weak urinary stream, and could not completely empty his bladder.
Doctors found a hard foreign body in his urethra and hardened glue remnants near the opening. Cystoscopy was not possible because the urethra was blocked, so they decided to perform surgery. During the operation, surgeons made an incision about two centimeters long and flushed the urethra with three liters of saline solution for approximately 15 minutes. This allowed them to separate the hardened glue from the tissue and remove a rigid, stick-like formation nearly 10 centimeters long.
The man was discharged five days after surgery. He still needed a catheter for another ten days and was given antibiotics to prevent possible infection. The treatment was successful, with no severe complications later observed. Six weeks after the operation, he was able to urinate normally. However, doctors were unable to determine what had originally caused the man’s urinary incontinence.
The authors of the case report note that cases of superglue being introduced into the urethra are extremely rare. Only three similar cases have been described in medical literature before, and in those as well patients needed endoscopic or surgical intervention to remove the hardened glue. Doctors emphasize that putting foreign objects or substances into the urethra can lead to serious tissue damage and infection.
