Ejaculatory dysfunction after spinal cord injury (SCI) is common with more than 90% of SCI men unable to produce an ejaculate. If the ejaculate is obtained by vibro or electro ejaculation the motility, morphology and forward progression are all subnormal. The exact cause of deterioration of sperms is not known although a number of factors can lead to poor quality semen. A randomized control trial was designed to evaluate if repeated ejaculation with a Ferticare® vibrator can improve the sperm quality in chronic SCI men. All had a spinal cord lesion above thoracic level 10 with a minimum duration of 6 months. The subjects who vibroejaculated (VE) with a Ferticare® vibrator were randomised into the study or control arms. In the study arm VE was applied weekly for 3 months. In the control arm VE was given only once at the beginning and end of 3 months. The semen analysis was performed by two observers according to World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. A paired Student t test was used for statistical analysis. Forty two of 79 subjects (53%) vibro-ejaculated successfully. Thirty four were randomized into study (n=18) and control (n=16) arms. No serious adverse events were encountered. Only morphology and forward progression on WHO criteria demonstrated significant improvement. There was no statistical improvement in either volume, count or motility. It is concluded that repeated ejaculation can improve some parameters of sperm in the semen of SCI men. Hence, patients with a SCI above the level of T10 can improve their sperm quality by applying VE weekly for at least 3 months. It is hoped that larger scale multi-centre studies will be undertaken to confirm the effectiveness of repeated ejaculations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:626155 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Hamid, R. |
| Publisher | University College London (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1391275/ |
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