leech therapy for treating priapism: case report

Priapism is well-defined by persistent, painful penile erection which happens without sexual stimulation. currently, the hirudotherapy is practiced to treat venous congestion and subsequent compartment syndrome. here we will report a case of a male with priapism treated by leeches. the case was a 26 yr old young single male referred to the razi hospital emergency department, guilan university of medical sciences, rasht, iran due to long-time spontaneous erections. the patient had no history of mental disorders, trauma or sickle cell anemia. we insert two leeches in each side of penile shaft for two hours, after a one hour break we insert do in same manner for another cycle. at follow-up two days later he had significantly decreased pain, though still had cavernosal swelling and tenderness to palpation. the patient was subsequently discharged after three days of admission. the pain and perineal swelling completely resolved over the course of one month. in this case, chronology indicates that leech therapy was possibly treatment option for priapism. this procedure seems to be non-invasive treatment strategy worth to discussing in such patients.