Masturbation triggered a potentially deadly heart complication in a 59-year-old man, leaving doctors concerned and baffled.
According to medics who treated the New Yorker, the self-pleasure session caused a tear in his aorta — the artery that carries blood from the heart to the body.
Such events are considered a medical emergency that kill up to a third of people who are unlucky enough to suffer one.
Unusually, the man suffered no chest pain, shortness of breath, loss of consciousness or nausea as would be expected.
Instead, shortly after masturbating he ‘experienced lightheadedness, a tingling sensation to both hands, and jaw tightness,’ a medical report on the case explains.
According to medics who treated the New Yorker, the self-pleasure session caused a tear in his aorta — the artery that carries blood from the heart to the body
Such events are considered a medical emergency that kill up to a third of people who are unlucky enough to suffer one
Concerningly, the man had been on a three-mile job the day before — suggesting that he was physically fit prior to the event.
The report, published in the journal Clinic and Experimental Emergency Medicine, continues that after suffering the vague symptoms ‘he decided to lie down and experienced an episode of urinary incontinence’.
It was at this point that he called an ambulance.
At the hospital, tests revealed he was suffering from extremely low blood pressure and a slow pulse.
Fearing that he was suffering from sepsis — a potentially fatal immune system reaction to an infection — doctors immediately prescribed antibiotics.
Although his symptoms improved he then began suffering dizziness while trying to walk and was admitted for further heart tests.
Finally, am ultrasound scan revealed the real cause: an acute type A aortic dissection, also known as a ruptured aorta.
He was rushed into surgery for an aortic graft replacement, in which the torn section of the aorta is removed and replaced with a tough flexible tube implant.
He is believed to have made a full recovery.
Why masturbation triggered the rupture isn’t clear however the report confirms that the vague symptoms he suffered were ‘unusual’.
‘Approximately 6.4 per cent of aortic dissections present without chest pain; as such, painless dissections are atypical presentations more likely to be associated with increased mortality,’ it continued.
A similar case, of a 60-year-old man with a high blood pressure condition called Liddle’s syndrome, suffering an acute aortic dissection after masturbating, was reported last year
The prognosis for people who suffer an acute type A aortic dissection is often bleak.
At least 30 per cent of patients die even after surgery, surviving as little an ten days.
For those who survive, the risk of organ failure, stroke, amputation — due to circulatory problems — and bowel issues, among many other things, is increased.
The patient in question had previously been diagnosed with IgG4-related disease.
The inflammatory condition causes damage to many organs in the body and he also suffered from high blood pressure, kidney disease and pacreatitis.
He was also on steroids, long-term, in order to control his health issues.
It is unclear whether this condition or the medication had led to his aortic dissection, however the medics wrote: ‘This case reinforces that aortic dissection can be present without pain, including the classic presentation of tearing chest pain or back pain.
‘Emergency physicians should maintain a high index of suspicion for aortic syndrome in all ED patients, especially patients with IgG4-related disease, and consider atypical presentations and manifestations of aortic dissection.’
A similar case, of a 60-year-old man with a high blood pressure condition called Liddle’s syndrome, suffering an acute aortic dissection after masturbating, was reported last year.
In that instance, the patient sought medical help when he started to suffer a ‘ripping’ chest pain that started when he began to self-pleasure — while smoking cannabis.
Studies have found one in ten young men with Liddle’s syndrome — a genetic problem that causes the pressure inside the aorta to be very high — may suffer an aortic rupture.
Marijuana use has been shown to increase heart rate and blood pressure and has independently been linked to increased risk of aortic dissection.
