As the months of the pandemic have gone by, doctors who are on the front line fighting the virus have been detecting new symptoms and consequences caused by COVID-19. Although from the beginning the disease was treated mainly as a respiratory syndrome, the passage of time has shown that it can have other symptoms in parts of the body such as the tongue or even cause loss of smell or taste.
The truth is that medical researchers are constantly studying new and different physical problems caused by the virus. Some of them are truly surprising. Although it may seem strange, several publications have confirmed that they are analyzing several cases of COVID patients who have suffered involuntary erections of up to 4 hours of duration, in theory, as a consequence of the virus.
The two patients would be over 60 years old and would have suffered these episodes of priapism (erection without sexual stimulation) while they were admitted to the ICU. One of them died a few days later, while the other overcame the disease.
These two cases have been analyzed in an article published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine where the main details are described. The first person to be affected by this was a 69-year-old man who was infected in Miami last summer.
As we explained, his evolution of the disease was not positive and, also due to his obesity problems, he would end up in a serious condition in an Intensive Care Unit.
To try to achieve an improvement, especially while his serious respiratory problems, the doctors sedated him and placed him face down. This technique is used to get air to flow more efficiently through the lungs.
The man was in this position for 12 hours. It was when the doctors were ready to turn him over that they realized he had an erection. Initially, a bag of ice was applied to try to bring it down, but this had no effect.
Finally, after three hours of erection, it was decided that it was advisable to extract blood from the penis with a needle. It eventually returned to its normal condition and the man did not suffer any further episodes of priapism. Sadly, a few days later he lost his life.
A second case confirmed in France
Forbes magazine confirms that the second similar case also took place last summer, although this time in the French city of Versailles. This patient was a 62-year-old man who became seriously ill and had to be treated in an ICU.
In his case, he was also sedated but was connected to a respirator. It was during a physical examination that his erection was detected. For 4 hours there was also no way to get it down by applying ice, so he also had to have some blood extracted with a needle, making the penis flaccid again. This patient managed to overcome the disease some days later.
In both cases, the doctors agree in affirming that they detected clots in the blood of these patients. Scientists have already explained that this is a symptom derived from coronavirus and this could have caused the blood to move to the penis causing the involuntary erection.
Although everything points to this symptom being clearly linked to coronavirus, experts still urge caution in considering priapism as a definite symptom of COVID. They call on the medical community to study other possible cases.
[This is a translation of the original article "Detectan un nuevo síntoma del coronavirus: Erecciones de hasta 4 horas" published in espanadiario.net]