Acute Urinary Retention due to Urethral Foreign Bodies

ABSTRACT

A 54-year-old man presented to the emergency department with a chief complaint of suprapubic pain and inability to void for 1 day after self insertion of urethral foreign bodies. These foreign bodies were two beans self inserted compulsively into the urethra by the patient. On physical examination, two materials of oval shape in the bulbous urethra were palpable. Retrograde urethrogram showed a complete obstruction in the bulbous urethra. When possible, endoscopic removal should be used for urethral foreign bodies. However the beans of our case required surgical retrieval. We present a case of foreign bodies in the urethra with brief review of literature. To our knowledge, this is the first case of acute urinary retention due to beans in Korean literature.