By Sam Blanchard Health Reporter For Mailonline
Published: 15:56 BST, 4 April 2019 | Updated: 15:57 BST, 4 April 2019
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A man whose erection lasted two days developed gangrene and needed the tip of his penis amputated.
The extraordinary case of the unnamed 52-year-old, from India, has been published in an medical journal.
Doctors revealed the man first went to the hospital because he couldn't get rid of a 'painful and sustained' erection.
When medics drained the blood, however, they left a catheter in and he quickly developed a black gangrene on the head of his penis.
The unnamed patient, 52, first went to a medical centre in the north of India because he had a painful erection which wouldn't go away. But within four days he had had the end of his penis amputated, his doctors revealed in BMJ Case Reports (stock image)
By the time he returned to hospital there was so much dead tissue surgeons were left with no option but to amputate.
The man was treated at King George's Medical University in Lucknow – around 310miles (500km) south east of New Delhi.
He first sought help for priapism, the medical term for a persistent and painful erection of the penis, according to an article in BMJ Case Reports.
He had been suffering from the painful condition for 48 hours before first going to a medical centre.
It is unsure what triggered his priapism. It is considered a medical emergency if an erection lasts for longer than two hours.
However, the NHS states it can be caused by sickle cell disease, illegal and legal drugs, or by taking Viagra or similar erection remedies.
