There’s nothing worse than getting an injury down low for simply trying to get dressed.
According to a new study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), trouser zippers are the most common cause of penile injuries among men in the United States.
Researchers’ data suggests that each year a whopping 900 men over the age of 18 go to the emergency room because their penis has been caught in their zipper.
Researchers used emergency room data from 100 representative hospitals that participate in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), which is run by the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission. They found that between 2002 and 2010, those 100 hospitals treated 2,695 cases of penile injury, of which 523 involved zippers.
Based on those actual cases, the researchers estimated that emergency rooms in the U.S. treated 17,616 zipper-related penile injuries during the same nine-year period.
According to the findings the zipper is the leading reason for penis related injury for grown men, whereas for children it is usually due to a fall or some other minor injury.
Fortunately, the study also found that 98 percent of all boys and men who go to the ER with a zipper-related penile injury do not need to be admitted to the hospital. They almost always go home right after being treated.
The researchers also found that zipper-related injuries rarely involved other genital organs. The second most commonly zipper-damaged organ was the scrotum, but it was only less than 1 percent cases.
Not surprisingly, zipper-related injuries were extremely rare in women. There were only five cases.
Just the sound of getting caught up in zipper can make one cringe, so luckily the UCSP researchers recommended some advice.
They said parents should not put their son into zippered trousers until they are confident that their child has the dexterity and focus to avoid an injury. They also suggest men wear form-fitting underwear to protect themselves, well their penis, from the zipper.
It looks like men may want to trade those boxers for briefs to keep everything in order down under.
The study was published last week in the urology journal BJU International.
