Observation of Erectile Indicators in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury

Background and objective: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the high-risk patients in various countries around the world. Traumatic, iatrogenic, or vascular causes can all lead to spinal cord injury, presenting characteristics of high incidence, high disability rate, high cost, and a majority of young and middle-aged patients. The male to female ratio of SCI patients is 7.4/1, with an average age of (36.3±10.12) years [1]. Patients who have been hospitalized for a long time without sexual activity, and sexual function recovery is relatively lagging, seriously affecting comprehensive recovery and quality of life. To investigate the differences of nocturnal penile erections between patients with complete and incomplete SCI. Methods: 74 male patients with different degrees of SCI were enrolled from January 2019 to December 2023. According to The 2019 version of the International Standards for Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury, these patients were divided into two groups: complete SCI (ASIA A) and incomplete SCI (including ASIA B, C, D, and conical cauda equina injuries). Rigiscan was used to monitor the nocturnal penile erections via measuring the penile tip average event rigdity%, base average event rigdity%, tip event tumescence% ,bsae event tumescence%,tip average event tumescence and baseaverage event tumescence. Results: Different plane SCI patients had neurogenic erectile dysfunction, and there was no significant difference between the peniletip average event rigdity%, base average event rigdity%, tipevent tumescence% ,bsae event tumescence%,tip average event tumescence and baseaverage event tumescenceof complete and incomplete SCI. Conclusion: Patients with spinal cord injuries at different levels all have neurogenic erectile dysfunction, and the severity of erectile dysfunction is not significantly correlated with complete SCI