Sexual rehabilitation after radical retropubic prostatectomy: new technique using ilio-inguinal nerve graft.

Sural nerve grafts have been used to repair the cavernous nerves and allow sexual potency recovery after radical prostatectomy. In order to overcome the drawbacks related to the harvesting of the sural nerve, the authors developed an original technique using ilio-inguinal nerve grafts to repair the cavernous innervation during radical prostatectomy. This technique used in a group of new patients proved its feasibility and absence of intra- and postoperative complications. Compared to sural nerve the use of ilio-inguinal graft has some advantages: 1)- Greater familiarity for urologists to harvest the ilio-inguinal nerve; 2)- Less time to acquire the graft; 3)- Greater postoperative comfort, avoiding inferior limb pain and edema, that delay patients' mobilization and recovery; 4)- Absence of anesthesia or paresthesia in the calcaneal area; 5)- Absence of sympathetic reflex dystrophy in inferior limbs.