Case Report
Hair Coil Penile Tourniquet Syndrome in an Unusual Age
Kursad Zengin,
1
Mustafa Yasar Ozdamar,
2
Sebahattin Albayrak,
1
Serhat Tanik,
1
Muhittin Atar,
1
Hasan Bakirtas,
1
Muhammed Abdurrahim Imamoglu,
1
and Mesut Gurdal
1
1
Department of Urology, Faculty of Medicine, Bozok Universitesi Uygulama ve Arastirma Hastanesi, Uroloji AD, 66100 Yozgat, Turkey
2
Department of Pediatric Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Bozok Universitesi Uygulama ve Arastirma Hastanesi,
Uroloji AD, 66100 Yozgat, Turkey
Correspondence should be addressed to Kursad Zengin; kursadzengin@gmail.com
Received 29 October 2014; Accepted 1 February 2015
Academic Editor: Ferdinando Fusco
Copyright © 2015 Kursad Zengin et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Penile tourniquet syndrome (PTS), a rare urologic emergency, may lead to undesirable results including necrosis and amputation
of penis, if not diagnosed and treated appropriately. Sometimes these injuries may be accepted as a forensic case. Miscellaneous
objects used for strangulation can be metallic or nonmetallic. Of all ages, the most vulnerable period is infancy. Telogen efuvium
is the most common cause of PTS in infants who are 0–6 years old. In the literature, telogen efuvium as a reason of PTS was not
found except for this age group. Terefore, we aimed to present a boy who is 8 years old diagnosed as PTS because of his mother’s
hair coil.
1. Introduction
Penile tourniquet syndrome (PTS) is usually caused by a
hair coil wrapped around the sulcus coronarius of penis. Te
complications range from simple edema to necrosis. When
we reviewed the literature, between the years of 1967 and 2014,
it was seen that the cause of penile strangulation in babies
was mother’s hair, with its specifc nomenclature telogen
efuvium. It was signifcantly encountered in circumcised
boys. Urethrocutaneous fstula, complete urethral transec-
tion, penile gangrene, or penile amputations were presented
among the reported complications in the literature [1, 2].
Hair coil penile tourniquet syndrome is usually seen in
boys between 0 and 6 years old [1]. Herein, we aimed to report
an experience with the diagnosis and treatment of an 8-year-
old boy with a complicated hair coil penile strangulation.
2. Case Presentation
Te patient’s mother recognized an increasing swelling in
glans penis and sulcus coronarius for 24 hours in her 8-
year-old boy. Tey were admitted to urology clinics of a
medical center. Tey were prescribed local antibiotics. Afer
24 hours of this treatment, the swelling increased, and
they were admitted to our outpatient clinic. In the physical
examination, a hair strand in the sulcus coronarius which was
coiled around penile shaf and another island-like region on
the ventral side of glans penis was found (Figure 1). It was also
noticed that the patient had an obvious glob vesical.
Te patient also complained about voiding difculty.
Under general anesthesia the hair was cut and excised.
Debridement around sulcus was performed and a healthy
urethra was noticed. Peroral antibiotics and anti-infam-
matory medication were initiated afer the operation. Te
patient can urinate without any instrumentation postoper-
atively. Patient was discharged on the postoperative second
day. His parents were advised once a week for follow-up
visit. On the postoperative third week, complete recovery was
observed (Figure 2).
3. Discussion
PTS commonly occurs in the appendicular organs of infants
like genitalia, toes, and fngers. Te most common cause is
hair coil injury with 79% of incidences [1, 3]. Although PTS
is mostly encountered in infants of mothers with postpartum
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Case Reports in Urology
Volume 2015, Article ID 642547, 2 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/642547