ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION: TESTS FOR LEAKY VEINS

March 27, 2009, 7:05 am

To diagnose leaky veins you often need to have a cavernosogram. This test has been around for a while, but recently if s become more widely used to check out vein problems. It can provide important information which just isn’t available any other way.

The cavernosogram test takes about 20 minutes, and while it involves sticking a small needle in your penis, it is an otherwise painless procedure. You are given an artificial erection with a penile shot. The doctor then injects some dye into the penis which makes any leaky veins show up on an X-ray. If everything is normal, the dye should just stay in the erect penis. But if a man has leaky veins, the dye will leave the penis and show up in the veins. With this test, your doctor can determine the size and location of the leak.

Another test, the xenon wash-out, gives some of the same information but unfortunately can’t pinpoint the location of the leak. Because the cavernosogram gives more information, if s usually preferred.

The crucial thing about vein abnormalities is that they can be exceedingly difficult to diagnose. If a doctor doesn’t look for them, vein problems are easy/to miss. Any leak in the system may be a lifelong problem, or it may develop after years of satisfactory erections. Eric, a 40-year-old fisherman, had always enjoyed sex very much. He never had problems with erections. A large and very strong man, he prided himself on his health and the effort he put into keeping physically fit. But two years ago, Eric developed a problem maintaining his erections. He didn’t know what was wrong and neither did his steady girlfriend, Margie. As time went on, Eric’s difficulty increased. He went to several doctors, but no one could find anything wrong with him. Finally, Eric was referred to a urologist who specialized in potency problems.

Sure enough, Eric checked out fine on every test—but one. That test showed that he could blame his veins for the change in his potency. At this point, we don’t know just what makes some veins fail after functioning well for years. Fortunately, Eric didn’t have to resign himself to the situation. He had a choice between having the veins repaired, or having a penile prosthesis.

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