Nocturnal penile tumescence studies in spinal cord injured males.

Traditional methods of evaluating sexual function in disabled individuals using neurological examinations, interviews, and psychological screening has been well established. A patient's ability to have erections and ejaculations are recorded through interviews with the patient and his partner. Therefore, to obtain a more objective view of the patient's sexual function, we used a nocturnal penile tumescence monitor in 12 tetraplegics and 12 paraplegics. Patients were interviewed for sexual histories before and after the injury. Their penile size was monitored during sleeping time using two strain gauges attached to each end of the penile shaft. The bridge output from these strain gauges was amplified to a single channel recorder. The spontaneous increase of penile circumference and its duration was recorded. The result showed that: tetraplegics had a greater increase of penile size and longer duration of erection than paraplegics, there is no correlation between incompleteness of spinal lesion and erection, there is no correlation between the presence of bulbocavernosus reflex and erection, and there is no correlation between sex dreams and erections.