Prevalence of corporeal venous leakage in impotent men

To provide insight into the prevalence of corporeal venous leakages as a factor in impotence, 44 consecutive impotent men who failed to achieve an erection after intracorporeal papaverine injection underwent dynamic infusion cavernosometry and cavernosography. If venous leakage is defined as either a failure to increase intracorporeal pressure greater than the systolic blood pressure or a rapid decrease in intracorporeal pressure after cessation of saline infusion during cavernosometry, 30 of the 44 men (68 per cent) fall into this category. If cavernosography (43 men) is used to define the presence of a venous leakage in these impotent patients 37 (86 per cent) fall into this category. These data support recent observations that there is a high incidence of venous leakage as defined by these criteria in men with organic impotence. The significance of these findings can be determined only once a similar study in age-matched potent men is performed.