Several other research centers also are experimenting with the surgery, including the University of Michigan, Columbia University, Cornell University and the University of Washington. Usually, doctors can preserve male sexual function after prostate surgery by saving the two nerves that carry signals to the penis to fill with blood, allowing erections. But if the cancer is too close to the nerves, one or both of them must be cut, often leaving patients impotent. The new approach uses a stretch of nerve removed from the ankle to fill the gap left between the severed ends of these nerves, which run next to the prostate gland. Dr. Peter Scardino, a pioneer of the procedure, estimates that one-third of the men who have prostate cancer surgery might benefit from the nerve grafts.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among U.S. men.
The nerve graft approach was first done in 1997 at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston by Scardino, a urologist, and Dr. Rahul Nath, a plastic surgeon. It has now been done on more than 300 men at several U.S. hospitals. It makes complete sense to do this. The most impressive results are among men in whom both of the so-called cavernous nerves have been cut during prostate removal. Such men virtually never regain the ability to have intercourse spontaneously.