Multiple sclerosis is a common disease,1 and hence the importance of recognizing its early symptoms is worth emphasizing. In several series of cases1 the literature shows that the average symptom-bearing duration, from the onset to actual recognition of the disease, varied from three weeks to fourteen years, with an average of four years. This means that these cases might have been recognized four years earlier with a proper appreciation of early symptoms. In the interest of knowledge concerning these early manifestations, we desire to draw attention to a bizarre early symptom of multiple sclerosis, namely, priapism of a chronic nature lasting for a period of years. Wechsler2 mentioned that this occurs, but gave no details. No other author of a textbook has mentioned the symptom, but the literature supplies two cases to which we now draw attention and then report an additional case.
CASES FROM THE LITERATURE