Case report
Point-of-care ultrasound used to exclude penile fracture
1 Department of Emergency Medicine, William Beaumont Army Medical Center, 5005 North Piedras Street, El Paso, TX, 79920, USA
2 Department of Emergency Medicine, Darnall Army Medical Center, 36000 Darnall Loop, Fort Hood, TX, 76544, USA
3 Division of Urology, University of Kentucky, 800 Rose Street, Kentucky, KY, 40536, USA
Critical Ultrasound Journal 2012, 4:17 doi:10.1186/2036-7902-4-17
Published: 13 July 2012Abstract
This is a case report of a superficial penile hematoma that was difficult to distinguish clinically from a penile fracture. Such cases occur with relative frequency, and because definitive treatment is an urgent surgery, timely diagnosis is essential to avoid complications. Typical imaging modalities such as cavernosonography and magnetic resonance imaging can be invasive (cavernosonography) or time consuming (magnetic resonance imaging) and may not be readily available. Ultrasound has been used successfully in such cases, and, in this case, we used point-of-care ultrasound combined with a brief period of observation to exclude penile fracture.
