McConnell J, Benson G S, Schmidt W A
Anat Rec. 1982 Aug;203(4):475-84. doi: 10.1002/ar.1092030407.
The morphology of human penile blood vessels has been studied to characterize columns of smooth muscle found in the intima. Although previous workers (Kiss, 1921; Conti, 1952) termed these intimal pads or polsters and concluded that they were actively responsible for the production of erection, more recent work has questioned these conclusions (Benson et al., 1980; Newman and Tchertkoff, 1980). Serial sections were taken throughout the length of the penis from 11 cadavers and stained with various histopathological stains. Numerous polster-like structures were found, but all could be identified as either branch points in vessels, intimal cushions located at branch points, or arteriosclerotic lesions at various stages of development. None of these structures seem capable of functioning in the manner attributed to them by Conti (1952) and others. Furthermore, comparison of the structures found in the present study to illustrations of polsters in Conti's paper suggest that these are identical. The present study refutes the polster theory of erection and leaves open to further question the mechanisms involved in the control of blood flow into and within the penis.
人们已对人类阴茎血管的形态进行了研究，以描述在内膜中发现的平滑肌柱的特征。尽管先前的研究人员（基斯，1921年；孔蒂，1952年）将这些内膜垫或肉阜称为勃起的积极成因，但最近的研究对这些结论提出了质疑（本森等人，1980年；纽曼和切尔特科夫，1980年）。从11具尸体的阴茎全长获取连续切片，并用各种组织病理学染色剂进行染色。发现了许多类似肉阜的结构，但所有这些结构都可被识别为血管分支点、位于分支点的内膜垫或处于不同发育阶段的动脉硬化病变。这些结构似乎都无法以孔蒂（1952年）及其他人所认为的方式发挥作用。此外，将本研究中发现的结构与孔蒂论文中的肉阜插图进行比较表明，它们是相同的。本研究驳斥了勃起的肉阜理论，并使阴茎血流控制所涉及的机制问题有待进一步探讨。
