- With Mayo Clinic urologist
Erik P. Castle, M.D.
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Erik P. Castle, M.D.
Erik P. Castle, M.D.
Dr. Erik Castle is a board-certified urologist who joined the Mayo Clinic staff in Arizona in 2007.
Dr. Castle is an associate professor of urology at College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, and a senior associate consultant in the Department of Urology, where he also is assistant residency coordinator.
He was an assistant professor in the Department of Urology at Tulane University in New Orleans from 2004 to 2006 after serving as a clinical instructor/fellow at Mayo Clinic in Arizona for one year.
Dr. Castle's research interests include prostate cancer, bladder cancer and kidney cancer. He is the director of the Desert Mountain Prostate Cancer Research Fund and is the principal investigator of Castle labs housed at the Samuel C. Johnson Medical Research Building at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. His basic science research is focused on novel secondary hormonal therapies of prostate cancer as well as genomics of prostate and bladder cancers.
His surgical expertise includes laparoscopic urology, robot-assisted radical prostatectomy with nerve sparing, robot-assisted radical cystectomy with neobladder, robot-assisted retroperitoneal lymph node dissection, robot-assisted partial nephrectomy and other robotic urologic oncology procedures. He has performed many of these procedures as demonstrations internationally. He is a member of the American Association of Clinical Urologists, the American Urological Association, the Endourological Society, and the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons. He is past president of the international Society of Urologic Robotic Surgery. He is also the director of the international laparoscopic nephrectomy courses throughout Mexico on behalf of the American Urologic Association.
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Question
Penis fracture: Is it possible?
Is it possible to fracture your penis?
Answer
from Erik P. Castle, M.D.
Yes. A penis fracture can occur when there is trauma to the erect penis.
During an erection, the penis is engorged with blood. If the penis is bent suddenly or forcefully while it's engorged, the trauma may rupture the lining of one of the two cylinders in the penis (corpus cavernosum) responsible for erections — resulting in a penis fracture. The trauma is usually related to aggressive or acrobatic sexual intercourse or, in some cases, aggressive masturbation.
A penis fracture is a painful injury that's often accompanied by an audible cracking sound, followed immediately by dark bruising of the penis due to blood escaping the cylinder. In some cases the tube that drains urine from the body (urethra) may be damaged as well, and blood may be visible at the urinary opening of the penis.
A penis fracture requires urgent medical attention. A penis fracture can usually be diagnosed with a physical exam, and prompt surgical repair is typically recommended. Left untreated, a penis fracture may result in deformity of the penis or the inability to have or maintain an erection (erectile dysfunction).
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- Yapanoglu T, et al. Seventeen years' experience of penile fracture: Conservative vs. surgical treatment. The Journal of Sexual Medicine. 2009;6:2058.
- Runyon MS. Blunt genitourinary trauma. http://www.uptodate.com/index. Accessed April 20, 2012.
- Kramer AC. Penile fracture seems more likely during sex under stressful situations. Journal of Sexual Medicine. 2011;8:3414.
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