Klismaphilia--a physiological perspective

Emergent and Surgical Interventions for Injuries Associated With Eroticism: a Review

BACKGROUND

To review the consequences of sexual activities that can cause severe morbidity and the current emergent and surgical measures for treating them.

METHODS

A computerized search of the English and non-English MEDLINE database (January 1973 to October 2005) identified the major sexual activities that caused injuries requiring emergent or surgical intervention, or both. These activities were grouped by type, pathologic findings, and sites of injury. Cause and symptoms are discussed, as are the radiologic, emergent and surgical interventions employed worldwide.

RESULTS

Two major groups of sexual-erotic activities, whether self-inflicted or accidental, emerged as culpable for most of the injuries. One was hetero-homosexual relations that were associated with penile fracture and Peyronie's disease. The other was related to the sequelae of autoeroticism and included penile constriction devices, anorectal, urethra-bladder, and vaginal foreign bodies as well as autoerotic asphyxiation. Injuries in both groups affected men more than women (e.g., 1.7:1 for foreign bodies in the urethra and 99:1 for anorectal). Complications were either immediate or delayed. Predisposing factors for injury are described. Emergent medical management and corrective surgical measures (usually by urologists and gynecologists for genital involvement and proctologists and general surgeons for rectal involvement) were similar worldwide and the need for them was surprisingly limited.

CONCLUSIONS

Most erotic activity-related injuries are medically or surgically treatable, although some sexual practices can be lethal. Dissemination of information on risk of injury is the best preventive measure.

Encopresis and anal masturbation

Current pediatric and psychiatric studies on encopresis and its treatment are heavily influenced by mechanical, physiological, and behavioral considerations. Although psychodynamic treatment has generally been considered to be of little benefit, and its findings suspect, the authors suggest that a psychodynamic approach adds substantially to the understanding of some cases of encopresis; that the anal sensations and anal erotic feelings reported by a number of encopretic children are intense, and that the encopretic symptom, soiling, in these children is the result of a conscious form of anal masturbation in which the fecal mass is used for stimulation; and that any study of encopresis is incomplete that does not include what encopretic children, engaged in a sound therapeutic relationship, know and say about their soiling. The authors further suggest that physical treatments of those children whose encopresis is psychologically driven may be contraindicated. The presence of a large stool does not in itself substantiate a physical illness. Further research is needed to elucidate the prevalence of anal masturbation in encopretic children.