NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Thanks to commercials for erectile dysfunction
drugs, men know to seek medical attention for "erections lasting more
than four hours," but a new study suggests a blood disorder is the cause
of many prolonged erections.
While the condition - formally known as priapism - is rare, researchers report in The Journal of Urology that between 14 percent and 30 percent of cases that show up in U.S. emergency rooms are men with sickle-cell disease.
"I would say what
the paper is telling us is that sickle-cell disease is still responsible
for the bulk of the visits for priapism," said Dr. Gregory Broderick, professor of urology at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, who was not involved in the study.
