ETIOLOGY OF PRIAPISM IN 207 PATIENTS

Two hundred and seven patients were treated for priapism in Finnish ho spitals in 1973-1990. In order to analyse the aetiology of priapism, t he original data on these and on 163 age- and time-matched controls, w ho underwent appendicectomy, were collected from the hospitals. The in formation was completed by collecting extra data from other hospitals and health centres or by personal contacts. In 43 of the 207 cases (21 %), the cause of priapism was an intracavernous injection of a vase-ac tive drug. These patients were excluded from the logistic regression a nalysis used to evaluate the most essential factors associated with pr iapism. They were found to abuse alcohol (p < 0.001), use psychopharma ceuticals Cp < 0.001), antihypertensive drugs (p = 0.003), anticoagula nts (p = 0.005), as well as to have lumbar disc pain (p = 0.002) and c hronic prostatitis (p = 0.01). Smoking was also significantly more com mon in the patients affected by priapism (56%) than in the controls (3 3%), being significantly associated with heavy alcohol drinking and us e of psychopharmaceuticals. A disease or trauma was a possible causati ve factor in one third of the patients. The present study confirms the suggestion of a multifactorial aetiology for the initiation of priapi sm.