Abstract
Dysfunctions,e. g.,urinary or sexual disturbance,may be inevitable following excision of rectal cancer for cure,many of which stem from the neurological damage to the bladder and sexual apparatus inflicted by the pelvic lymphadnectomy. Seventy-five year old or younger patients with carcinoma of the rectum who had been treated by either low anterior or abdominoperineal resection in the period of 1970 to 1988 were asked by a questionnaire constructed to identify their sexual difficulties. Since 1983 when an autonomic nerve preserving surgery first introduced for rectal cancer,the patients with an intact or near-intact sexual ability had been increasing. However,in not a few patients,sexual function had been partly or totally impaired depending on the method of surgery or the degree of autonomic nerve preserved. To those,a supportive therapy -intracavernous administration of papaverine- was given with some satisfactory results.
