[Sexual disorders in men following radical operations on the rectum for carcinoma]

This is the first study in Bulgaria of postoperative sexual disorders following radical surgical operations for rectal cancer. The study group comprised 64 patients. Six months after the operation only 15 (24.4 per cent) were able to have erection. Fourty nine patients who complained of inability to have erection received long-term treatment with vitamins, tranquilizers, cholinomimetic drugs, beta-blockers and medicines increasing bladder tonus. Normal erection was re-established in 31 (63.3 per cent) of these patients. The 18 (36.7 per cent) patients unaffected by drug treatment reported of possible ejaculation. This is an indication that impairment of sympathetic innervation of the genitals after operations of the rectum is of transient nature, whereas parasympathetic damage may be definitive.