Urologie pro praxi 2/2019

Andrological care for a patient after spinal cord injury

Sexual health is one of the main priorities for men after traumatic spinal cord injury and the restoration of sexual health is a permanent rehabilitative priority. Men with spinal cord injury require multidisciplinary care, including sexual-andrological care. The sexologist most often intervenes in spinal cord injured men for erectile dysfunction and infertility. In the treatment of erectile dysfunction men after spinal cord injury most often benefits from oral treatment with a phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors or topically or intracavernosal administered alprostadil. Artificial ejaculation or surgical sperm collection, and assisted reproduction techniques, will enable a paraplegic couple to have biologically owned children. Ignored is the testosterone defficiency in pareplegic men, which can be associated not only with the quality of sex life and fertility, but also with cardiovascular morbidity.

Keywords: spinal cord injury, erectile dysfunction, infertility, artificial ejaculation, assisted reproduction techniques, autonomic dysreflexia.