Older age and a large tunical tear may be predictors of increased erectile dysfunction rates following penile fracture surgery

Penile fracture is a rare urological occurrence resulting from a tear in the tunica albuginea of the penis. In this study, 26 patients diagnosed with a penile fracture were treated with early surgical correction. The mean age at the time of the injury was 41.7 years. The average follow-up time of the study population was 28.8 months. The mean time from fracture to surgery was 15.6 ± 19.9 h. In total, 23% of the patients had a penile nodule and 11.5% of these patients reported penile deviation. Post surgery, erectile dysfunction (ED) was present in nine (34.6%) patients. During the follow-up, the mean International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) score was 20.9 ± 4.3 (10–25). There was no significant difference in the time from fracture to surgery among the patients with or without ED. However, the tunical tear size was significantly larger in the patients with ED as compared with those without ED. Furthermore, the patients with ED were older than those without ED. Older age and the size of the tunical tear appeared to be correlated with the development of ED. However, prospective large series are needed to confirm these results.