Retrocaval uterer: Two case reports

Retrocaval ureter also referred to as pre-ureteral vena cava is a rare congenital anomaly with the ureter pass-ing posterior to the inferior vena cava. Though it is a congenital anomaly, patients do not normally present with symptoms until the 3rd and 4th decades of life from a resulting hydronephrosis. We present the first two cases to be reported in Ghana; a 36-year-old male and a 40-year-old female both with right flank pains and associated right hydronephrosis. Diagnoses were confirmed with retrograde ureteropyelogram and both had an open surgical repair of the anomaly

Penile Strangulation by Self‐Placement of Metallic Nut: Corporal Cavernosa Tissue Showed Resilience to Thermal Burns Sustained at Removal

We report a case of a 37-year-old male who presented with a 12-hour history of a strangulating 2cm wide by 0.8 cm thick metallic nut on the penile shaft at the peno- scrotal junction. Unlike instances where these metallic objects are placed to enhance sexual stimulation this nut was rather placed to prevent intercourse. A Bosch electric circular grinder was successfully used for removal but a thermal burn to the penile tissues was sustained in the process as the hardness of the nut required a high energy to cut and its thickness did not allow for effective cooling during the process of removal. This resulted in a circumferential denudation of penile skin, a urethro-cutaneous fistula at the penoscrotal junction and a mid-bulbar urethral stricture. The penile wound was subsequently covered with a split skin graft with a delayed closure of the urethrocutaneous fistula and a buccal mucosa patch urethroplasty for the mid bulbar stricture. Despite the degree of thermal burns sustained the patient has maintained good erectile function with grade four rigidity. The tunica albuginea and the underlying corpora cavernosa have shown a significant degree of resilience to thermal burns compared to the corpora spongiosum where the thermal burns led to a urethrocutaneous fistula.Keywords: Penile Strangulation, Metallic Nut , Thermal Burns , Corpora Cavernosa , Urethrocutaneous Fistula