As a rule, spontaneous gangrene of the penis has its origin in
some intense fever. Partridge describes a man of forty who had
been the victim of typhus fever, and whose penis mortified and
dried up, becoming black and like the empty finger of a cast-off
glove; in a few days it dropped off. Boyer cites a case of edema
of the prepuce, noticed on the fifteenth day of the fever, and
which was followed by gangrene of the penis. Rostan mentions
gangrene of the penis from small-pox. Intermittent fever has been
cited as a cause. Koehler reports a fatal instance of gangrene of
the penis, caused by a prostatic abscess following gonorrhea. In
this case there was thrombosis of the pelvic veins. Hutchinson
mentions a man who, thirty years before, after six days' exposure
on a raft, had lost both legs by gangrene. At the age of
sixty-six he was confined to bed by subacute bronchitis, and
during this period his whole penis became gangrenous and sloughed
off. This is quite unusual, as gangrene is usually associated
with fever; it is more than likely that the gangrene of the leg
was not connected with that of the penis, but that the latter was
a distinct after-result. Possibly the prolonged exposure at the
time he lost his legs produced permanent injury to the
blood-vessels and nerves of the penis.
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