Man’s attempt to stop incontinence left a 10-centimeter glue plug in his urethra

A man in Iran who attempted to stop urinary incontinence with superglue ended up needing surgery to remove a hardened adhesive blockage from his urethra, according to a medical case reported by Live Science. The 41-year-old visited an outpatient clinic after about a week of intense pain during urination and discomfort above his pubic bone. His urine stream had become weak, and he could not empty his bladder properly. He told doctors that his incontinence had begun roughly a month earlier. In response, he inserted superglue into his urethra for two weeks. The approach initially appeared to work, but after four days he began producing less urine and experienced increasing pain. By the time he sought treatment—two weeks after stopping the glue—he was barely able to urinate and was in constant discomfort. During the examination, doctors found a solid foreign object inside the penile urethra. They also saw brittle glue fragments at the urethral opening. An attempted cystoscopy could not proceed because the obstruction prevented the instrument from advancing far enough to examine the passage. The medical team performed emergency surgery. They made an incision of about 2 centimeters in the glans and flushed the urethra with 3 liters of saline for 15 minutes. This helped loosen the adhesive from the urethral walls. Surgeons then removed a rod-shaped block of hardened glue measuring nearly 10 centimeters long. After the operation, the man’s urination and urine analysis returned to normal. He left the hospital five days later with a catheter scheduled to remain for 10 days and was prescribed antibiotics to prevent infection. At a follow-up six weeks after surgery, he had normal urination and no further reported complications. The doctors did not determine what had caused his original incontinence. Live Science reported that only three other medical case reports had described people deliberately placing superglue in the urethra, with those patients also requiring endoscopic or surgical removal. The report noted that urethral tissue is delicate and that inserting foreign material can cause injury and serious infection.