There is a lot of ongoing researches about the coronavirus - its cure, causes, and effects.
In France, a new case has shown that the coronavirus may cause priapism. It was seen in a 62-year-old man who suffered from a four-hour erection.
According to doctors, priapism is an erection that lasts for more than four hours.
What caused the erection?
According to an article by the Daily Mail, a man who is 62 years old suffered the painful erection while battling COVID-19. He was receiving care at the hospital when he had this condition.
The man's penis had the erection because of the trapped blood.
According to reports, an ice pack was initially used to the penile area in trying to ease the erection. However, medics had to drain the blood clots that were in the penis of the 62-year-old man. They used a needle to suck out the blood from the man's penis.
The collected blood of the hospital staff had "dark blood clots." These clots, according to the doctors, were because of the thrombosis caused by the coronavirus.
According to reports, the man is out of the Intensive Care Unit and has recovered from COVID-19.
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What is the connection between the erection and COVID-19?
Some studies revealed that one-third of the patients suffering from the coronavirus had a dangerous complication of blood clotting or thrombosis.
These blood clots in the veins and arteries cause heart attacks and strokes to patients.
Due to the case of the 62-year-old man, priapism is now seen as an effect of COVID-19. This case in France is the first recorded since the beginning of the pandemic.
Doctors who attended to the 62-year-old man wrote about it in The American Journal of Emergency Medicine. These doctors are from the Centre Hospitalier de Versailles in Le Chesnay, Paris.
Coronavirus and Blood clots
Since the coronavirus hit the world, there are a lot of experts who continuously untangle the discoveries uncovered each day. One of these discoveries is the occurrence of blood clots in twenty to thirty percent of the COVID-19 patients.
There are a lot of hypotheses as to why the coronavirus causes blood clots.
One possible reason is that the coronavirus is directly attacking a cell in the blood vessels. These cells are the ones seen to help the virus enter the lung cells.
Another possibility is that the effect of the virus on the immune system could be blood clotting.
However, other experts suggest that pre-existing conditions of COVID-19 patients could be a reason for clotting.
The laboratory results gained by doctors in the case of the man in France suggests that priapism is connected to COVID-19.
However, since the case of the 62-year-old man is the only recorded case, experts say that further claims would be helpful evidence in proving that priapism is related to COVID-19.