Choice of X-ray surgical tactics for the treatment of venogenic erectile dysfunction in patients with pelvic varicose veins
Authors: Kapto A. A. 
Published: August 2021

The aim of the study was to develop an interventional approach for X-ray endovascular occlusion of the periprostatic plexus veins in patients with venogenic erectile dysfunction by systematizing X-ray phlebographic images obtained by standard dynamic pharmacocavernosography and dynamic multispiral computed cavernosography.

Materials and methods. A comprehensive examination was carried out in 192 patients with venous erectile dysfunction. The age of the patients ranged from 19 to 66 (36.5 ± 0.73) years. The indication for occlusion of the veins of the periprostatic plexus was a combination of erectile dysfunctions on the IIEF-5 scale from 5 to 20 points and pathological venous drainage from the proximal cavernous bodies of the penis.

Results. According to the Doppler ultrasound of the scrotum organs, TRUS of the prostate and the veins of the periprostatic plexus, all patients were diagnosed with pelvic varicose disease as a simultaneous combination of varicose veins of the gonadal veins and veins of the pelvic organs. Standard dynamic pharmacocavernosography was performed in 96 patients with erectile dysfunction. Pathological venous drainage was detected in 79 patients: proximal type - in 68 (86.0 %) of cases, distal type - in 4 (5.1 %) of cases and mixed type - in 7 (8.9 %) of cases. Periprostatic plexus vein occlusion was performed in 20 patients with venogenic erectile dysfunction with proximal pathological venous drainage. Complete disappearance of complaints of erectile dysfunction 6 months after X-ray surgical occlusion of the periprostatic plexus veins was noted in 81.0 % of cases (an increase in the index on the IIEF-5 scale from 12.7 ± 0.9 to 19.8 ± 0.9 points). The discrepancy between the data on the presence of venous leakage according to the results of standard pharmaco-Doppler sonography and the data on its absence according to the results of dynamic pharmacocavernosography in 19 patients determined the indications for dynamic multispiral computed pharmacocavernosography. The implementation of dynamic multispiral computed pharmacocavernosography made it possible to improve the visualization of variants of pathological venous outflow into the periprostatic venous plexus and the veins of the small pelvis from the cavernous bodies of the penis and to offer our own X-ray anatomical classification.

Conclusion. The most common type of pathological venous drainage is its proximal type (86.0 % of cases). X-ray surgical occlusion of the veins of the periprostatic plexus is an effective method for the treatment of venogenic erectile dysfunction. Visualization of X-ray phlebographic images of the small pelvis during dynamic multispiral computed cavernosography with 3D reconstruction surpasses the results of standard dynamic pharmacocavernosography in the diagnosis of proximal, distal and mixed types of pathological venous drainage from the corpora cavernosa of the penis. Dynamic multispiral computed pharmacocavernosography with 3D reconstruction allows to determine the shape of the pathological venous drainage of the proximal type and determines the choice of antegrade or retrograde method of X-ray endovascular occlusion of the peripheryprostatic plexus veins in patients with venogenic erectile dysfunction.