Word: cavernosa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Healthy nervous and circulatory systems are vital to achieving and maintaining an erection, researchers explain. When a man is sexually aroused, stimulated nerves trigger a chemical reaction that causes the corpora cavernosa, two rod-shaped bundles of spongy muscle that run along each side of the penis, to relax and draw in extra blood. As the chambers fill, they expand, pressing shut veins that normally drain blood from the organ. With blood coming in and none going out, the penis becomes rigid and erect...
...recently chaired an international conference on impotence research. But the vast majority of impotent men -- most are above age 55 -- are victims of poor habits or illness. Alcoholism, for example, can deaden nerves. Cigarette smoking can reduce blood flow to the penis by constricting vessels and causing the corpora cavernosa to lose elasticity. Diabetes, atherosclerosis and high blood pressure (and the medications used to treat it) can all have damaging effects...
...Injections of the drugs papaverine and phentolamine into the penis can counteract stiffening of the corpora cavernosa and thus permit engorgement with blood. Dosage is carefully balanced to produce an erection that lasts about two hours, and patients learn how to inject themselves. Urologists recommend that drug use be limited to ten times a month to avoid scarring. Occasionally a patient will suffer a prolonged erection; impotence clinics provide 24-hour emergency service to administer an antidote. Cost of the therapy: $1,200 to $2,400 a year. Robert Batts, 40, a former policeman in Hull, Mass., who became impotent...