Nonselective angiography after intracorporal papaverine injection: an alternative technique for evaluating penile arterial integrity.

Forty patients with impotence were evaluated by means of nonselective angiography after intracorporal papaverine injection. The penile arterial network was visualized in 39 patients (97%). The technique was technically simple, and there were no complications. The most common sites of arterial disease were the arteries at the base of the penis (58%) and the internal pudendal artery (31%). In patients with advanced atherosclerotic disease, formation of collaterals within the penile arterial network appears to be important in maintaining flow to the cavernosal arteries. Asymmetry of arterial disease was frequently encountered (54%), indicating the importance of bilateral visualization of the arteries supplying the cavernosal arteries. Penile arteries were not visualized adequately in any of the patients studied nonselectively without intracorporal papaverine.