Abstract
1. The widespread belief that patients with severe injuries of the spinal cord are completely and permanently impotent and infertile is no longer valid.
2. The distinct stimulating effect of intrathecal prostigmin on the sexual organs has opened new possibilities for clinical, physiological and biochemical research in a field where imaginative speculation and deduction on scanty grounds rather than on well-founded evidence have prevailed.
3. A variety of types and degrees of reproductive deficiency can be distinguished by the intrathecal prostigmin test.
4. Future research on the chemistry of the seminal fluid may give clues to abnormalities of the morphology and function of semen.
5. The intrathecal prostigmin test can be utilised for artificial insemination. It is essential that the female partner should undergo a thorough gynaecological and biochemical examination including pH of vaginal and cervical secretion and assessment of the most suitable time for assisted insemination.
6. Blood pressure and pulse should be examined at regular intervals during the prostigmin test from the start, especially in lesions above T5/6 to counteract excessive autonomic hyperreflexia by appropriate measures (Ansolysen, etc).
7. Patients, especially those with higher lesions should be warned about undesirable side-effects of prostigmin.
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Guttmann, L., Walsh, J. Prostigmin assessment test of fertility in spinal man. Spinal Cord 9, 39–51 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1971.7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1971.7
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