Surgery: An Occasional Cause Of Erectile Dysfunction
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A whole array of factors like diabetes, kidney diseases, vascular diseases, depression, anxiety, certain lifestyle factors such as smoking, drinking etc can cause erectile dysfunction in men. Besides all these factors, surgeries performed to treat prostate cancer, bladder cancer et al can also trigger off erectile dysfunction. Surgery is not used commonly rather it is used as a last option when the disease becomes incurable by other treatment alternatives such as medicines, therapies etc.

Surgeries That Cause Erectile Dysfunction: A Listing

All the surgeries conducted on men certainly do not lead to erectile dysfunction and only a couple of surgeries place men at the risk of impotency. The surgical procedures which increase the risk of impotency in men are listed below:

• Prostate surgery, especially surgery to treat prostate cancer
• Rectum surgery
• Bladder surgery(bladder cancer surgery)
• Colon surgery

How Do Surgeries Cause Erectile Dysfunction?

With regard to prostate cancer and bladder cancer surgeries, it is seen that people undergoing these surgeries fall prey to erectile dysfunction more frequently as in these surgical procedures the nerves and tissues covering the affected area are operated upon. On occasions when some of these surgeries injure nerves and blood vessels situated around the prostate gland, they yield temporary difficulty in facilitating erections necessary for sexual intercourse while some other prostate cancer and bladder cancer surgeries inflict permanent damage to the nerves and tissues surrounding the penis thus causing erectile dysfunction.

Nerve-sparing Technique: A Procedure to Reduce the Risk of Erectile Dysfunction in Patients Undergoing Surgery

In order to minimize the risk of patients falling in the grip of erectile dysfunction while undergoing prostate cancer, bladder cancer surgeries as well as colon and rectum surgeries, a specific procedure known as nerve-sparing technique is used. In nerve-sparing technique, the nerve bundles that congregate on the other side of the prostate, that are essential to trigger off erections necessary for sexual intercourse are separated from the prostate but nonetheless left together. The nerve bundles surrounding the prostate gland are wholly left unharmed in the process but if cancer has spread to these nerve bundles then they are cut off.

The nerve-sparing techniques are utilized in these surgeries to lower the occurrence of impotence by 40% to 60%. Sometimes erectile dysfunction results temporarily from these surgeries even when nerve sparing technique is utilized as a safety measure. If temporary impotency occurs, it takes almost 6- 18 months for the patient to recover from the disorder and achieve rigid erections necessary for sexual intercourse.

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