We Saved His Dying Testicle in 10 Seconds

In this video we demonstrate and discuss the importance of attempting manual detorsion of testicular torsions. Our hope is that this video encourages healthcare providers around the world to be more confident in their abilities and to understand the importance of quickly reducing testicular torsions before transferring for definitive care.

[brokenmedic]

GREAT job for the kid telling Mom and getting the help he needed!!

[Kuroki]

When I was 13 I had the worst testicle pain in my life when I was gaming at 2 in the morning . Quickly searched on the internet for what it could be. Luckily, I clicked on the Wikipedia article for testicular tortion. It said, and still reads to this day

“Non-surgical correction can sometimes be accomplished by manually rotating the testicle in the opposite direction (i.e., outward, towards the thigh); if this is initially unsuccessful, a forced manual rotation in the other direction may correct the problem.[7]: 149  The success rate of manual detorsion is not known with confidence.”

So I tried it out and immediately got the biggest pain relief of my life. And my testicle is fine to this day 10 years later. Since it says the success rate is unknown, and has for 10+ years, is there anywhere I can even report this success story?

[laurachapin]

Glad the child didn't try to tough it out and felt comfortable enough to discuss a potentially embarrassing issue with his mother. Thanks to mom for recognizing her son had an emergency. Hope the procedure was a complete success!

[terrypatterson]

A big shout out to Dr. Larry and the staff around him for the patient care they provide. I'm an RN at a Critical Access Hospital (CAH) E.D and a big fan of your videos. When you started talking about lack of ultrasound or immediate access to specialists, you really got my attention. In addition to limited transport to the higher level of care, we face those issues almost every shift. The fact that you addressed this is heartening because it is frustrating. Your work-around solutions
are quite helpful. With respect and admiration to you and those around you!

[LykMike]

I absolutely love doctors and nurses too. The feeling of having an emergency and going into the ER and the docs and nurses fixing that issue is sooo relieving. Thank you guys for what you do!

[lilitheden]

Poor kid. I can only imagine how painful this was. His mum did a good job bringing him to the hospital. I hope the operation went well and all is fixed now. For me as a lay person these videos are so interesting. The cases are about real people with problems anyone of us can get. I learned a lot by viewing them . Thank you and your patients for sharing this with us.

[meiraloraduncan]

Great job to both the boy and the doctors who helped him. I have never heard of this before and when Dr. Larry explained it it made perfect sense. The RN who came in to get him ready for surgery needs a refresher on procedures that need to be sterile: putting in IVs, taking blood etc because you don’t go touching your hair or face with your gloves and then touch anything that goes in or on a patient because the littlest thing can transfer bacteria or virus to the patient especially with an open wound, newly closed surgical site, an port, IV, pic line which can cause a life threatening health situation for the patient. I have had it happen to me and I was lucky to survive it because the life threatening infection was a severe form of bacteria that wasn’t killed by high doses of radiation daily that the area it entered my body because the radiation killed my sweat glands and hair follicles in the same area. As the infection spread it started causing neurological symptoms, but I didn’t know what was normal or abnormal having never had radiation while still in recovery from 2 major spinal surgeries that had major complications that nearly killed when my airway was compromised and because of that oxygen wasn’t going to my brain and I suffered a brain injury. When the infection spread it went to my brain, blood, spinal/brain fluid, and bone and because it was in the brain it made my injury worse. The exact infection wasn’t diagnosed until my Neurosurgeon was doing major removal and replacement of the damaged titanium hardware used in my spinal fusion surgeries that became damaged when I started having blackouts (neurological symptoms) multiple times a day that caused me to fall unconscious to the floor. The infection caused an increase in spinal/brain fluid and combined with everything else any pressure on the back of my head and upper back caused my central nervous system to go haywire and actually caused more damage to it and increased my severe nerve damage even more. During the repair surgery my Neurosurgeon removed the excess spinal/brain fluid which looked clear, but when it was cultured in pathology they were shocked to discover the infection I had been living with for 11 months. It would take another 10 months to completely kill it. I had to get a pic line placed in my left arm because I was going to have to administer a IV type of custom made antibiotic along with a blood thinner and another medication on a strict schedule around the clock. I also had to take 2 high dose medications orally that helped the IV antibiotics to get down into the bone to kill any infection in the bone. My medications and supplies were delivered by the hospital weekly and a home health nurse came weekly to change my dressing on the pic line and draw blood for the bloodwork that monitored the amount of infection still in my blood/body along with making sure that my liver and kidneys were not being damaged among other things. If you don’t know what a pic line is, it’s a tiny tube that gets inserted into an artery usually in the arm and the tube is carefully threaded up into your heart. Because it is in the heart you have to warm up the medications, which are kept in the refrigerator, and slowly inject them because if you don’t it can shock the heart and cause more health complications. I was very out of it when this was placed because I was on some major pain medication in addition to whatever they administered before I went down to have the procedure done, so I didn’t know that it went into my heart until the day it was removed. It was crazy watching her pulling it out because it kept coming for what seemed like forever. It was removed after 3.5 months, but I had to continue taking 2 oral medications for 6 more months. You don’t want a patient to get sepsis because you didn’t follow sterile procedures/protocols because it could kill them, cause them to have surgery to remove the infection, if the patient has a port or a central line, used in cancer patients or patients who have severe health issues that require IV medications while at home, and you don’t follow proper sterile protocols and they get an infection that is sepsis they have to have that port or line removed surgically as well as any infection they can see before they can put a new port in to replace the old one.

[rachelfausak]

Wow! Well done, Doc! This could have had a very different outcome had this young man been too embarrassed/uncomfortable to tell his mom what was going on. Props to mama bear for her swift actions!

[kevinlawlor]

I had TT in 1973 when I was in the third grade. After playing football in the park I told my parents about the awful pain. The Dr. did a doppler ultrasound, took me to surgery and anchored my testicle so they wouldn't twist again. The worst part about this whole incident was that I had to sit on the bench and couldn't participate in PE.

[jkalmeta]

I am so proud of that young man for being so brave and telling his mom asap. I know that’s an embarrassing region for teens to talk about. And Doc, I love your bedside manor! You explain everything so well, using simple terms, so everyone understands.

[aussieprincess]

As a mother of two young boys I’m very grateful for this young man and his mother for agreeing to share this. I didn’t grow up with a male figure so I had no idea something like this could happen until discussions with mates over the past 20yrs. I have severe endometriosis (as well as other chronic pain conditions) so I can empathise that it would be excruciatingly painful.

[endtimeswatcher]

Testicular Torsion is an emergency situation.This is the perfect example.Great job!!Im glad there was a quick action and this young man was helped!

[Bvddy.Hlly]

For my young boys and girls, if you are in pain in your 'private areas' even if it is embarrassing, tell a trusted adult. It could be something very serious such as cancer or some other threatening disease.

[Y.M...]

Props to you for saving this young man's prospects!
Sadly for a 14 year old patient of mine, who had been afflicted with the condition for over week at the time of presentation to my OR, the urologist ended up having to conduct an orchiectomy.

[thirstyboots]

As a Mom of 2 grown boys, I wish that I knew about this condition. I might have dismissed my child"s pain until it was too late.

[iris-nxwt]

My son was 17 woke up fine went to summer school and boom extreme pain. I took him to gp and she said go to the ER. They tried to manually fix but then They then sent him via EMS to another hospital for emergency surgery by urologist. So scarry and super painful. Dr stitched both down to prevent from reoccurring.

[juliemeaton]

My 16 yr old son had a twisted testicle and needed emergency surgery!!! He ended up having them both stitched to their individual walls so it would never happen again! Pretty scary at the time!!! He’s 23 now and absolutely no problems at all!!!

[DominicNJ]

God, I'm feeling sympathy pains here and it just makes me wanna cry.

[Leeky_speaks]

This is why emergency medicine is awesome I would love to go into this field in the future but I hear the field is disappearing

[countrystix]

I'm glad he told his mom and she knew to go to ER