Improvement of Erectile Dysfunction after Surgery for Cervical Disk Herniation

Abstract

Erectile dysfunction (ED) has been previously reported in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy. After treatment, patients usually experience an improvement in sexual function. Herewith, we present a patient with cervical disc herniation at the C3-C4 and C5-C6 level with ED but without myelopathy. The patient underwent anterior microdiscectomy and fusion with cages. ED improved postoperatively. We propose that the presence of ED should be checked in patients with cervical disc herniation. Further studies are needed to clarify the incidence of ED in patients with cervical disc herniation.

Keywords

spine - cervical disc herniation - erectile dysfunction

• References

• 1 Ebersold MJ, Pare MC, Quast LM. Surgical treatment for cervical spondylitic myelopathy. J Neurosurg 1995; 82: 745-751
• 2 Chiles III BW, Leonard MA, Choudhri HF, Cooper PR. Cervical spondylotic myelopathy: patterns of neurological deficit and recovery after anterior cervical decompression. Neurosurgery 1999; 44: 762-769 , discussion 769–770
• 3 Naderi S, Ozgen S, Pamir MN, Ozek MM, Erzen C. Cervical spondylotic myelopathy: surgical results and factors affecting prognosis. Neurosurgery 1998; 43: 43-49 , discussion 49–50
• 4 He S, Hussain N, Zhao J, Fu Q, Hou T. Improvement of sexual function in male patients treated surgically for cervical spondylotic myelopathy. Spine (Phila Pa 1976) 2006; 31: 33-36
• 5 Zhu JP, Sun Z, Liu YP, Li H, Jin GY, Zhou CX. [Clinical analysis of surgically treated cervical spondylotic myelopathy with erectile dysfunction]. Zhonghua Nan Ke Xue 2008; 14: 900-902
• 6 Rosen RC, Cappelleri JC, Smith MD, Lipsky J, Peña BM. Development and evaluation of an abridged, 5-item version of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) as a diagnostic tool for erectile dysfunction. Int J Impot Res 1999; 11: 319-326
• 7 Monga M, Bernie J, Rajasekaran M. Male infertility and erectile dysfunction in spinal cord injury: a review. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 1999; 80: 1331-1339
• 8 Ramos AS, Samsó JV. Specific aspects of erectile dysfunction in spinal cord injury. Int J Impot Res 2004; 16 (Suppl. 02) S42-S45
• 9 Tracy JA, Bartleson JD. Cervical spondylotic myelopathy. Neurologist 2010; 16: 176-187
• 10 Lue TF. Erectile dysfunction. N Engl J Med 2000; 342: 1802-1813
• 11 Fazio L, Brock G. Erectile dysfunction: management update. CMAJ 2004; 170: 1429-1437
• 12 Kwan KS, Roberts LJ, Swalm DM. Sexual dysfunction and chronic pain: the role of psychological variables and impact on quality of life. Eur J Pain 2005; 9: 643-652
• 13 Ashraf VV, Taly AB, Nair KP, Rao S , Sridhar. Role of clinical neurophysiological tests in evaluation of erectile dysfunction in people with spinal cord disorders. Neurol India 2005; 53: 32-35 , discussion 35–36
• 14 Ertekin C, Ertekin N, Mutlu S, Almis S, Akçam A. Skin potentials (SP) recorded from the extremities and genital regions in normal and impotent subjects. Acta Neurol Scand 1987; 76: 28-36