[Eulogy to Felix-Pierre Merklen (1901-1988)].
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A Lemaire.
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We tested the possibility of using intracavernous injections of the alpha-blocking agent moxisylyte (6-acetoxy-thymoxy-ethyl-dimethylamine) as treatment of erectile impotence. Laboratory studies proved moxisylyte to be more active than saline (double-blind with crossover) but less active than papaverine (crossover), since it induced prolonged erection in most patients but rigid erection in only a few. However, penile vibration proved to enhance the moxisylyte effects, the combination resulting in rigid erection in 5 of 8 patients tested. Repeated office injections of moxisylyte in 70 patients resulted in clear improvement of impotence during the subsequent weeks in 50 per cent of the psychogenic, and 18 per cent of the organic and mixed impotent patients. Of 91 impotent patients 42 achieved satisfactory intercourse within 2 hours after an office injection, although previously the same dose induced a rigid erection in the office in only 24. Of 37 patients instructed in moxisylyte self-injections 92 per cent achieved successful results without any significant side effect. The main advantage of moxisylyte proved to be its safety, allowing for less compelling precautions than with papaverine: only 2 of the 170 patients injected with moxisylyte at our clinic had prolonged erections, that is 1.1 per cent compared to 14 per cent in a personal series who received papaverine. In regard to the therapeutic applications of intracavernous injection facilitating drugs, such as moxisylyte, should be tried first, with use of the more potent but also more dangerous drugs, such as papaverine, only when impotence fails to improve.
The article discusses drugs which promote erection when injected via the intracavernous (IC) route during consultation. The diagnostic and therapeutic applications in the treatment of impotence are discussed also. 25% of impotent patients noted an improvement after this treatment while 50% of patients suffering from impotence of psychological origin noted an improvement. Auto-injection is also discussed. IC treatment now seems justified in most cases which have not responded to traditional therapeutic approaches and this includes cases of psychological origin. Vasoactive drugs can be described as being inducers (use of these drugs induces a rigid erection, even in the presence of the doctor), facilitating drugs (which produce a rigid erection only if sexual stimulation is present also) and inhibitors (which stop the erection). The former group (which has papaverine as leader) produces a significant number of side effects, not least of these being priapism; there is a risk of lasting iatrogenic impotence which is not negligible. These risks are reduced considerably when one uses facilitating drugs which, although less powerful, suffice in treating a large proportion of cases of impotence. Papaverine can not be replaced as a diagnostic drug but facilitating drugs should be used first in therapy and inducers should be used only if these facilitating drugs have failed.
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"Venous incompetence" is thought to be an organic cause of impotence. Its diagnosis is usually based upon Artificial Erection Test (AET); now, the reliability of this procedure is contested. We tested it in 9 controls, 13 psychogenic impotent patients and 65 impotent patients presenting "venous incompetence" according AET (maintenance flow rate needed for erection--MFR greater than 75 ml/min). Organicity of impotence was evaluated by Nocturnal Penile Tumescence monitoring and by the results of a sex-therapy. AET reproducibility was tested in 24 cases. The interest to perform an intracavernous injection of 80 mg papaverine before AET was tested in 18 impotent patients. Our results confirm that MFR is the most reliable criterion for interpreting AET. But 15% of the impotent patients with a MFR greater than 120 ml/min, 32% of those with a MFR greater than or equal to 80 ml/min and 66% of those with a MFR between 80 and 120 ml/min were in fact psychogenic patients. Moreover, we found "excessive" MFR in 3 of the 13 psychogenic patients and one of the normal controls (160 ml/min). In 50% of our patients, AET results were not reproducible. Injecting papaverine before AET significantly reduces MFR, but false positive results do still exist. Some recent physiopathologic data suggest that AET performed after papaverine injection might logically be disturbed by stress. These data should incite to be cautious when interpreting AET results, and results of "venous incompetence" surgery.
The physiological mechanism of ejaculation is recalled. The different kinds of abnormalities of ejaculation and their etiologies (drugs, post-surgery, neurological, endocrinological, psychological) are specified. The diagnosis and the therapeutical management of the different varieties are discussed and the results of a personal experience of 60 cases are reported.
The development of microvascular surgery has allowed the transfer of revascularized bone grafts. The surgical techniques of the most useful transfers are explained. The advantages, disadvantages and indications of these procedures, as compared with the other techniques of bone reconstruction, are discussed.
In five per cent of impotent, sexual dysfunction obviously results from an organic factor which can be today qualified as "classical". "Hidden" organic factors have also been implicated in a variable ratio of the other cases. This paper constitutes a critical review of the role they play in impotence, and of the methods allowing their detection. On one hand, methods allowing evaluation of the respective responsibilities of organic and psychogenic factors (the most important of which remain nocturnal penile tumescence monitoring); on the other hand, specific investigations of each factor. It is no longer possible to deny the existence of "hidden" organic factors in impotence. These factors intervene to varying degrees in one third of cases. Among them erectile failure only by themselves. Hyperprolactinaemia, moderate hypogonadism, infraclinical neuropathies, arterial stenoses and moderate venous leakages seem to play a partial role of organic starter or cofactor, the sexual consequences of which are amplified by psychological factors, partly secondary to the initial sexual failures. Nevertheless, the conjunction of several "hidden" organic factors may probably be sufficient to induce an impotence without involvement of psychological factors.
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Twenty-five impotent diatetics were investigated by means of nocturnal penile tumescence monitoring, hormone determinations, penile blood pressure measurement, artificial erection test and dynamic cavernosography, bulbocavernous reflex latency time measurement and cortical evoked responses from pudendal nerves. Sexological treatment was then attempted for a better evaluation of the psychogenic element. Penile blood pressure was also measured in 15 non-impotent diabetics and was found to be abnormal as often as in impotent diabetics. The results as a whole demonstrated that impotence was predominantly psychogenic in 9 cases, predominantly organic in 12 cases and mixed psychogenic and organic in 4 cases. Diabetic impotence is often due to several causative factors, as was the case in 12 of our patients. The factors most frequently responsible were psychological (present in 13 cases), neurological (present in 12 cases) and vascular factors (arterial abnormalities in 7 cases, "venous leakage" in 4 cases). Endocrine abnormalities were observed in only 2 cases.
Forty-five cases of nonorganic failure (n = 39) or lack of sexual desire (LSD, n = 6) were treated for one month, either with human chorionic gonadotropins (HCG, 5,000 IU I.M. twice per week) or with placebo using a double-blind method. HCG gave better results than placebo (47% vs 12%, p less than 0.05) and improved a higher number of sexual parameters (6/7) than placebo (2/7). HCG effect on sexual behavior did not correlate with the increase in plasma testosterone level: it seems HCG is a useful option in sexologic treatment of erectile failure and LSD.
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A 94-year old woman presented with gallstone formation above a stenotic choledoco-duodenal anastomosis, responsible for episodes of cholangitis. After percutaneous biliary tract drainage, the anastomosis was dilated with an angioplasty catheter. As several stones persisted despite washing out, percutaneous cholangioscopy was performed. To introduce a small fibroscope into the biliary canals, transhepatic dilation up to 28 F was necessary. The last stones were pushed into the duodenum with the endoscope. Freedom of the biliary tract and patency of the anastomosis were ascertained.
To determine whether intracavernous injection of papaverine can discriminate vascular versus psychogenic impotence 80 mg. papaverine were injected intracorporeally into 27 impotent patients without any hormonal or neurological abnormality. The patients also underwent dynamic cavernosography, the artificial erection test and selective internal iliac arteriography. In addition, 21 of the patients underwent nocturnal penile tumescence monitoring. The response to intracavernous papaverine injection was noted as positive (fully rigid erection), intermediate or negative (soft or absent erection). Among 14 patients with severe arterial lesions and/or severe venous leakage the response was negative in 11 and positive in none. Among the remaining 13 patients (moderate or absent vascular abnormalities) the response was positive in 4 but negative in 4. Of 15 patients with an abnormal nocturnal penile tumescence test the response to intracavernous papaverine injection was negative in 12 and positive in none. However, of 6 patients with a normal nocturnal penile tumescence test the response was positive in only 1. Over-all, the results of the intracavernous papaverine injection test are correlated only fairly with those of the nocturnal penile tumescence test and the vascular investigations. This test could be useful to save some nocturnal penile tumescence tests in cases of suspected vascular impotence. However, the safety of this procedure must be confirmed in larger series. Indeed, 1 of our patients suffered priapism after a second intracavernous papaverine injection performed for a therapeutic purpose.
We tested whether the necessity for high flow rates of saline to maintain an artificial erection actually corresponds to an organic abnormality able to induce impotence as claimed recently. A total of 56 patients with presumed vascular impotence and 13 with typical psychogenic impotence underwent dynamic cavernosography followed by the artificial erection test. The former 56 patients also underwent bilateral selective internal iliac arteriography. A severely elevated maintenance flow rate (more than 120 ml. per minute) was found in 19 of the 56 patients with vascular and none of the 13 with psychogenic impotence, while a moderately elevated maintenance flow rate (80 to 120 ml. per minute) was found in 11 and 3, respectively. In most cases a severely elevated maintenance flow rate was associated with arterial (16 patients) or neurological abnormalities able to disturb erection. However, a severely elevated maintenance flow rate seemed to correspond to an organic abnormality able to induce impotence or to worsen erectile failure induced by other organic factors. Indeed, we found no severely elevated maintenance flow rates among our 13 patients with psychogenic impotence and the nocturnal penile tumescence test was normal in only 1 of 12 tested patients, although 7 had no other organic impairment sufficient to induce impotence (only moderate arterial stenoses in 4). In addition, sexual treatment succeeded in only 1 of the 13 patients, while our success rate is 43 per cent among patients with arterial impotence exclusively and this treatment succeeded in 6 of 10 patients with a moderately elevated maintenance flow rate. On the contrary, a moderately elevated maintenance flow rate does not seem to correspond to a genuine organic abnormality able to induce impotence. Indeed, we found it in 3 of 13 patients with psychogenic impotence, and every patient with a moderately elevated maintenance flow rate and normal arteries had a normal nocturnal penile tumescence test or was cured by sexual therapy. In conclusion, a maintenance flow rate exceeding 120 ml. per minute seems to reveal a genuine venous incompetence but in most cases this abnormality is only the cofactor of an arterial obstruction.
Intracavernous injection (IC) of vasoactive drugs (papaverine (ICP) in 115 cases and different alpha-blockers in 65 cases) were administered to 65 patients with erectile impotence to evaluate diagnostic and therapeutic interest of this procedure. Immediate (induction of erection) and medium term (lasting improvement in impotence) results were correlated with those of investigations of multidisciplinary etiologies. Comparison of results of ICP with those of plethysmography of nocturnal erections (PEN, 52 cases) gave negative results for the papaverine test (lack of erection or one without rigidity) in 67% of cases of impotence of organic origin (PEN abnormal). However, the test was positive (totally rigid erection) in 17% of cases of organic etiology and only 40% of psychogenic cases (PEN abnormal). Comparison of results with those of selective hypogastric arteriography and of the artificial erection test with dynamic cavernography (43 cases) showed that the papaverine test was never positive in patients with severe arterial occlusion or obvious venous leaks. However, an elevated proportion of cases with a negative test failed to show signs of marked vascular anomalies. Integration of results of total multidisciplinary explorations showed that most patients with organic or mixed impotence producing a positive or intermediary type papaverine test were cases of neuropathic impotence or had major neuropathic elements. Repeated IC of different vasoactive drugs (excluding the use of autoinjection techniques) failed to provide lasting improvement except for psychogenic impotence (5 of 9 cases). But it is in this group that IC is the most dangerous (2 cases of priapism and 8 cases of rigid erection prolonged over more than 4 hours).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)