Treating Painful Erection at the ER

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Narrator
What treatment can I expect at the ER for my painful erection?

Sheldon Marks, MD
If you get a persistent or painful erection, which is called priapism, you need to be seen right away. Believe it or not, it's common enough that everyone in the ER will have seen it, they'll get you in. The doctors will first try to ice you up, hoping that they can chill it. Sometimes you can even squeeze the blood out and the erection will fade, and that's actually a good sign though it can be horribly painful. There are these phaso-dilators, medications that will allow the blood vessels to expand, to allow the blood to leave, they can have you inhale those and sometimes that works. If that doesn't work and the other techniques don't work We numb up the skin, put in a needle, and basically aspirate out, pull out the old thick blood that's no longer oxygenated, it's just static and getting old. And that allows the erection to fade and usually in a very short time, men have resolution of the pain. The sooner you act, the better your chance for a normal sex life in the future. If you wait, and I've seen some men that wait for 24 hours, then your risk for complications, permanent scarring, permanent damage, go way up.