Abstract
Foreign matter is often found in the urinary bladder among young patients seeking sexual self-consolaton. The author had long suspected that rural areas have a higher incidence of such cases than urban areas. This was corroborated after a thoroughgoing study of records preserved in our hospital. The findings were presented at the 43rd general meeting of the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine in 1994. The following is a summary of the findings.
A careful check was mede on the medical records of male and female patients between 13 and 25 years old who were treated in the department of urology of our hospital during the past 16 years beginning 1978. There were 14 cases in which foreign bodies were found lodged in the bladder and urethra. Despite the fact that patients visiting our hospital are predominantly city-dwellers, 10 cases out of the 14 were from rural area. By sex, they consisted of 6 males and 4 females. In some of the cases, sexual harassment and bullying were primary causes.
Foreign bodies included a clinical thermometer, pencil-like objects and other things easily available. These things were removed using a cystoscope, except in one case where a polyethylene tube was lodged. In this exceptional case, the object was discharged when olive oil and water were injected into the bladder. As long-term measures to prevent these incidents from happening, further efforts are required to make a rural society open and sound.
