A case report in Sweden reports that a 12-year-old child is experiencing a rare side effect of Covid-19.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — In rare cases, Covid-19 can cause some pretty dire side effects in the male bottom area. Persistent erections, medically called priapism, have been seen in some Covid-19 patients.
When there is no other clear cause, then the virus is the culprit. In a new report published in the journal Urology, a medical officer in Vienna, Austria described the case of a 12-year-old boy with priapism.
Reported The Sun as of Saturday (29/1), the boy had been having an erection continuously for more than a day by the time he got to the hospital. The condition caused him pain.
Ischemic priapism, the most common form of this condition, is the result of blood not being able to escape from the penis. If left untreated, priapism can lead to tissue death or erectile dysfunction.
Against the boy, doctors had time to use a needle to “pierce” his penis and drain some of the blood. However, the move did not work and became too painful for the child.
The patient was then sedated to allow other attempts. Although it was constrained, his penis eventually became flaccid again.
The problem is, 24 hours later, the patient began to experience priapism repeated. This time, he did not experience any pain.
Scans show multiple blood clots in corpora cavernosa, the spongy tissue on the shaft of the penis that fills with blood to cause an erection. In the end, the doctors solved the problem by applying ice packs and compression to the perineum, which is the area of skin between the genitals and the anus.
Again, however, the boy returned to the hospital three days later with an erection that was “completely stiff and painful” and with characteristic pain. After treating him, the patient is referred to a specialist to make sure he doesn’t have any blood disorders, such as sickle cell disease, that may be behind the recurring problems.
A number of conditions were ruled out. Eight weeks later, the child was fully healthy again.
Doctors said the boy had first contracted Covid-19 seven weeks before the incident. The child again had a positive test while in hospital, which showed he had contracted it again.
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