Electrophysiological testing in patients operated with the 'nerve sparing' technique for bladder and prostate cancer

Operations performed with the 'nerve sparing' technique allow a better quality of life preventing impotence and incontinence. To evaluate the results of these operations, 35 patients were studied preoperatively with neurophysiological tests. These included electromyography of the bulbocavernosus muscle and examination of the sacral reflexes, the pudendal somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) (spinal and cortical) and the motor evoked potentials (MEPs). Fourteen of these patients were also studied at 6 and 12 months after the operation. A good correlation was found between clinical situation and neurophysiological evaluation (above all, the sacral reflexes and the spinal SEPs) in terms of incontinence. On the contrary, the correlation was scarce in terms of impotence.