[Clinical and pathophysiological findings in priapism (author's transl)]

Priapism is a pathological and mostly painful permanent penile erection. Typically only both corpora cavernosa and not the corpus spongiosum urethrae and the glans penis are involved. The vascular and nervous preconditions for a normal erection are discussed and a new concept presented. On this basis the conditions for a priapism are enumerated and the principles of therapy are discussed.