Elsevier

World Neurosurgery

Volume 109, January 2018, Pages 365-371
World Neurosurgery

Historical Vignette
Through Clinical Observation: The History of Priapism After Spinal Cord Injuries

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2017.10.041Get rights and content
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Since ancient times, physicians of antiquity noted the occurrence of priapism in some spinal cord injuries. Although priests saw it as a consequence of curses and witchcraft, after clinical observations of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the first medical hypotheses emerged in the 17th–19th centuries completed and argued by neuroscience and neurology developed in the European laboratories and hospitals. This study aims to present a short overview of the history of clinical observations of posttraumatic male priapism after spinal cord injuries since antiquity until the beginning of the 20th century.

Key words

History of neurosurgery
Male priapism
Spinal cord injury

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Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that the article content was composed in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.