When a mother came to our hospital with her two-year-old boy suffering from a rectal prolapse it seemed like a standard case.
In children, the main treatment is to improve the child’s nutritional state and the rectal prolapse will fix itself. In the meantime, buttock strapping can protect the rectum and provide relief.
However, this child’s mother also noted that the patient cried and pulled on his penis whenever he needed to urinate. A quick ultrasound of the child’s bladder revealed a calcified mass inside.
Apparently, the stone was acting like a ball-valve and blocking the exit point for urine through the urethra. The child’s straining to urinate is what likely caused the rectal prolapse. I removed the stone from the bladder through a small abdominal incision. Afterwards, the patient stopped pulling on his penis to urinate and the rectal prolapse resolved.
Looking at the size of that bladder stone (in a two-year-old!) I can’t imagine the pain he has struggled with (enough to cause a rectal prolapse!). I’m its removal has completely changed his quality of life and probably his mother’s as well!