Sexual Dysfunction Caused by Injuries of the Cervical Spinal Cord Without Paralysis

Abstract

Loss of sexual desire and impairment of sexual function in patients with symptoms of cervical spinal cord involvement without paralysis were found in 85 patients of both sexes in a series of 2076 consecutive patients seen during a 13-year period. History of trauma was given by 79 patients. Compression of the spinal cord and nerve roots by disc herniation, contusion, and/or edema from hyperextension and flexion injuries in the patients with sexual dysfunction was the most probable cause of damage to the intermediolateral column of cells in the lateral horn. In another study, sections of the spinal cords of 11 patients, who had been subjected to lower cervical cordotomies, showed destruction of the lateral horn of the spinal cord in 3 patients who had experienced sexual dysfunction. Sexual function improved in 77% of patients with surgically treated cervical spinal cord injuries and in 26% of conservatively treated patients.