Complication after penile biopsy

[joe2311]

Hello.  I am in desperate need of some answers.  On January 4th I had a penile biopsy.  All the results came back OK.  No STD's and no atypia or viral cyto replication.  About one day after the biopsy i noticed the area under the stitches was starting to raise up.  This is when a light colored blood started to appear on the band-aid when i removed it.  By the two day mark the stitches were risen up even more and still more ligh colored blood.  Underneath it felt like a hard, moveable mass.  At the one week mark the stitches fell out on their own but the top stitch never healed completely, leaving a small open wound.  Stupidly i began to squeeze the mass of skin underneath and a lot of blood began to drain out of the hole.  Seeing the mass shrink in size i continued to squeeze the blood out.  At the two week mark(january 18th) i saw a urologist.  At this point the mass was reduced to a hard pea directly underneath the cut, and was unsqueezable.  The fluid draining wasnt blood anymore but more like a light colored watery substance.  The urologist examined me and put me on an antibiotic called bactrim and told me to take sitz baths.  Well i saw the same urologist today and the cut on top of the skin looks the same and the pea sized lump still looks and feels the same and the urologist had no new information.  Just said to come back in six weeks, do not touch the lump and if it isnt healed on its own in 6 weeks he can do surgery, but told me that is no guarantee to fix the problem since it could come back.  I am completely at a loss right now and do not know what my next move should be.  So my question is, what is this mass underneath where i had the biopsy?..i had read somewhere that it could be a build-up of serous fluid and that is what is coming out of the hole and that it will eventually absorb on its own. Scar tissue perhaps?  Would scar tissue have developed that quickly(one day) after a biopsy?  Will this ever heal on its own or am i doomed to another surgery?

[joe2311]

Doc, thanks for your answers.  But my question is what exactly is this nodule?  And how did it form?  I thought a biopsy is a relatively simple low risk surgery.  My scar right now is a decent size white scar and the nodule underneath is slightly bigger.  If I squeeze the nodule hard a yellowish fluid comes out of the hole where the top stitch was and the nodule appears to be getting smaller.  The nodule also appears "softer" after a hot shower.  So what exactly is this nodule?  And why might it be there forever?

[Stephen Liroff, MD]

Give it time. I mean months. There is no reliable forecasting as to  how large/obvious/detectable the scar will be. Whatever surgery is done, there will always be some scarring.  That means that surgery to eliminate a scar will have some scarring.

[joe2311]

Doc,there may always  be a small nodule deep to or within the skin here?  I do not want to have a small lump in my penis.  Will it dissolve to the point that it is not noticeable or feelable?  There is already a scar from the biopsy so how much worse would the next scar be?

[Stephen Liroff, MD]

The inflammation and scarring that follows a surgical procedure takes time to resolve. I'd give this several months to go away.  There may always be a small nodule deep to or within the skin here. I'll bet that you'll be fine. If you have it removed surgically you'll have the scar of that surgery to deal with.
S.A.Liroff, M.D.