Surgical clip passed through penis post prostatectomy?

[caborich]

Had open radical prostatectomy, Gleason 7 (3/4). Had a lot of bleeding post surgery, 4 units given in hospital. Once home, extreme amount of surgical drainage including what appeared to be urine coming out around the drain. About 2.5 weeks after the procedure, I was experiencing elevated levels of pain, stabbing type felt thru rectum and penis. Then, when urinating, I passed a titanium surgical clip through my penis. Is that normal? Does it happen regularly or was there a mistake made during my surgery?

[Ash Tewari, MD, M.Ch.]

Surgical clips are left behind in the body after surgery and it is very common but some people (though it is very rare) are allergic to titanium especially if they are allergic to other metals as well. In that case they develop reaction to it but it is somewhat different from what you are describing here. Most surgeons now prefer plastic clips instead.

The two events of drainage and the clips may or may not be related to each other. A clip could have migrated toward the bladder during surgery and you had to pass it. I do have some questions.The surgical clip coming out through penis makes me question the status of your anastomosis. Did you have a cystogram done before the catheter was removed? Has the pain subsided after passage of the clip? Any other problems you encountered recently?

Thanks,

Ashutosh (Ash) K. Tewari, MD
www.cornellroboticprostate.org

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[mikeyboy13]

A related discussion, re passing a clip was started.

[caborich]

Thanks for the reply Dr. Tewari. To answer your questions:
No cystogram done at any time. A cystoscopy was done last Friday, Dec. 18th, to check and see how the ureter to bladder connection was healing, and to see if any "other" clips were present. I was told that there is still a "hole" that was healing, but that everything looked okay.

Yes, the high level of pain/discomfort was gone within a day of passing the clip, save for some burning when urinating and some blood in my urine.

No other complications. I am still unable to acheive an erection, and still have continence issues. The continence seems to get better as time passes and I do my Kegels. The erectile disfunction.... I am to start taking 10mg of Levitra this week when attempting to have sexual relations... we'll see how it goes.

Once again, thank you for taking the time out of you no doubt busy schedule to respond.

Richard