[Aortic surgery and sexual function]

An account is offered of the haemodynamic and neurological questions posed by the relation between reconstructive aortoiliac surgery and sexual function. Attention is drawn to the anatomical and surgical features of the preaortic sympathetic structures. In the light of experience gained in pelvic haemodynamic evaluation with the Doppler penile pressure index, a method that has proved very useful in the study of pre- and postoperative impotence in the arteriopathic subject, stress is laid on three conclusions: a) the high frequency of impotence in aortoiliac arteriopathy (65% in a personal series); b) the beneficial effect on penile circulation of revascularisation of the hypogastric artery (increase in pressure index in 70% of cases); c) the relatively high incidence of postoperative sexual disturbances (30% in the personal series) due to lesion of the preaortic sympathetic structures, the risk being greater with techniques requiring wide exposure of the aorta. This danger is foreseeable in all sexually potent patients and should determine the indication for surgery, the method chosen (extra-peritoneal route, extra-anatomical by-pass), and the technique (in an aorto-femoral by-pass, the aorta should be prepared in accordance with carefully followed rules of surgical anatomy, and confined wherever possible to a short infrarenal segment).