When surgeons in India tried to cut a metal ring off a 38-year-old man's penis, a surgical stapler-pin cutter, a heavy bone cutter, and a hacksaw all failed. What finally worked was an orthopedic cutter tipped with tungsten carbide, a tool built to slice through metal surgical implants such as wires and screws.
The case, described in a case report in Frontiers in Urology published on April 29, 2026, ended well. It also highlights a problem emergency doctors face with trapped rings anywhere on the body: modern bands made from hard metals do not all come off the same way. Some have to be cut with heavy-duty tools. Others, made of tungsten carbide, can be cracked apart with a pair of pliers.
