A 36-year-old, married male office worker was admitted to our Emergency Department (ED) for gross hematuria and severe dysuria caused by the self-insertion of a thick and semirigid electrical cable into his urethral meatus. At first he attempted to remove the cable himself, resulting in further insertion. He first visited a nearby clinic but his urethral pain was not improved and instead deteriorated rapidly following manipulation by the treating clinician. He was still under the influence of alcohol at the time and could not clearly recall what had occurred. On visual inspection, the distal segment of a thick and semirigid electrical cable was protruding through the meatus, and its tip was tied to prevent further advancement into the urinary bladder (Fig. 1A). A plain pelvic radiogram revealed a long radio-opaque object, which was twisted multiple times to form a coiled refractory structure in the pelvic cavity (Fig. 1B). We attempted to remove the cable manually, but could not draw it out owing to the severe pain inflicted on the patient. We decided to avoid any further manipulation of the cable owing to the possibility of further urethral injury.

Under general anesthesia, we performed a lower midline incision and the bladder was opened to a minimum length. The twisted cable was detected in the urinary bladder with no other mucosal injury present, and was gently removed by manipulation towards the head of the patient.

A 22-year-old male presented to our ED complaining of mild lower abdominal pain associated with moderate dysuria. He was an unmarried university student at a Reserve Officers' Training Corps. He was alert and not intoxicated. He clearly explained the circumstances, which led to him inserting bar magnets into his urethra prior to sexual intercourse. He was obsessed with the idea that this would strengthen his penis. However, to eventually retrieve the inserted bar magnet, he inserted another into his urethra. He failed to draw out the two bars with a small circular magnet, and subsequently attempted to remove them using chopsticks. However, this caused the magnets to become more deeply inserted into his urinary bladder.

A plain radiograph of his pelvis revealed what appeared to be two radio-opaque bars and one circular foreign body in his pelvic cavity (Fig. 2A). Under general anesthesia, we examined the region from the urethra to the urinary bladder in the patient using 22-Fr cystoscopy, but failed to retrieve the materials using forceps (Fig. 2B). They were eventually removed endoscopically with grasping forceps.