Impact of COVID-19 on penile fracture

Background: Penile fracture is an uncommon urological emergency. Before the era of the novel corona virus, we hardly dealt with one case per year. But with the imposition of lockdown due to COVID-19, there was a surge in penile fracture cases. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between COVID-19 and penile fracture. Methods: From April 2020 to December 2020, when nationwide lockdown was imposed, all the patients presenting with penile fractures were enrolled in the study. The study was a retrospective study. Patients were also assessed for symptoms of COVID-19, and a nasal swab was taken for COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Results: The study included 9 patients. The age range was 22-50 years with a mean of 31.2 years. Manual bending was the most common cause (66.7%). The mean time interval between trauma to hospital admission was 44 hours. While one patient had mild upper respiratory tract symptoms, none tested positive for COVID-19. Conclusions: Though there was a surge in penile fracture cases, no association was found between the two. Neither patient tested positive for COVID-19, nor had developed upper respiratory tract symptoms. The reason for the sudden surge may be due to the lockdown itself, when people had to stay indoors and were involved in activities leading to penile fracture. The other reason may be the shutdown of other local hospitals when all the patients landed up in a tertiary care center like ours.