Man's scrotum swells bigger than a football and rots as it hangs below his knees

A man's infected scrotum swelled bigger than a football and began rotting as it hung below his knees, say the stunned doctors who treated him.

The 43-year-old patient was in agony with two open wounds in his scrotum which were expelling a foul-smelling pus when he showed up in A&E.

The man - who had Fournier's gangrene, a rare and life-threatening flesh-eating disease - was unable to walk because his genitals were so large and heavy - weighing more than 7lbs - as they sagged just off the ground.


His hydrocele - a type of swelling in the scrotum - measured 30.2cm  x 24.4cm x  13.1cm (12ins x 10ins x 5ins), and doctors believed he had a parasitic disease caused by an infection with blood-feeding roundworms.

The patient - who hadn't seen a GP since he was a child about 30 years ago - was using a walker to help him get around and his mother had to help him with daily tasks because the swelling was so bad.

Doctors in the Central American country of Panama were stunned when they saw the man's swollen scrotum during an examination after he arrived at a hospital with other issues, including a fever and irregular heartbeat.

Part of his scrotum was removed as he had to undergo an emergency operation and follow-up surgeries for a number of problems.

The incident was reported in the medical journal Urology Case Reports.