One of the greatest accomplishments of western medicine is the advancement of surgery. Any doctor would agree that surgery has helped in many areas where other medical traditions have proven useless. When it came to penis enlargement, western medicine has provided a suitable answer to methods like weight hanging and pumping. It developed surgical methods to extend and widen the penis. Penile enlargement surgery is, however, extremely new, and although its techniques are improving, it is still fraught with side effects.

When it first got going in the early 1990’s there was a high demand among men for surgical augmentation, but around the middle of the decade stories of frightful results scared people away from having an enhancement operation. Since then, methods have become a bit safer and enhancement surgeons are becoming more confident about their industry’s success. They are, for example, attempting a more dignified approach to marketing, pulling ads from the back pages of exotic magazines. Still, however, major cosmetic surgery associations are reluctant to support the penis enhancement procedure, and men who undergo it must be willing to pay thousands of dollars for what may ultimately be uncertain results.

Methods for surgically enlarging the penis
There are two ways of enlarging the penis through surgery. The first involves lengthening by cutting through the suspensory ligament in order to let the penis hang out and potentially achieve a larger erection length. The second pertains to penis girth, and involves padding the organ by grafting skin and fat onto its sides. While the two are often done together, the operation to increase penis width has had far better results.

The lengthening surgery involves making cuts at the base of the penis, opening up the skin to reveal the ligaments that keep the penis connected to the pubic bone. After these ligaments are cut, the penis can hang down further. In some cases, a slightly longer erection length is achieved. Unfortunately, in many instances the size and direction of a post-surgical erection have turned out to be unsatisfactory to the patient. Many have reported little or no increase in the length of an erection and often the erect penis rises to a height much lower than ideal. In the early days of length-increasing surgery, patients were often left with a penis that shifted erratically during sexual intercourse, and erections that could point downwards. While these negative side effects have been minimized, it should also be remembered that cutting the ligament also increases the organ’s general vulnerability.

Enhancing penis width
Surgical width enhancement first began using the same techniques that were applied to the cosmetic enlargement of the lip. Through the process of liposuction-that is, taking fat from another part of the body and injecting it into to penis-a greater width was attained. Problems arising from this surgery included an uneven shape and an eventual reabsorption of the fat into the body. Since then liposuction has taken a back seat to the newer, more successful process of grafting. This involves taking layers of skin and fat from another part of the body, usually the buttocks, and inserting them into the sides of the penis through slits made close to the head of the penis. While this method creates a smoother finish it is also common that it ends up leaving thick scars on the penis.
The most recent innovation actually involves using flesh from dead bodies to stuff into the sides of the penis. Surgeons who practice this method point out that the flesh adapts to the body after blood cells grow inside it. Others prefer not to use the lifeless material, although the method involves less lumping and scaring than both liposuction and normal grafting.

Before considering surgical penis enhancement it is important to take into account the complex chain of events that goes on during an erection. Many medical shortcomings for erections and ejaculations involve a malfunction at one of the critical stages along the way. As with any surgery, there is always a risk of complications occurring. In terms of penis enlargement, such complications could limit sexual performance and activity permanently.

About erections
An erection is often caused by something a man sees or hears. This type of stimulus triggers a neural response near the middle of the spinal cord that signals the penis to produce an erection. When the penis is touched directly, the bundles of sensitive nerve endings there transmit signals to nerves in the lower spinal cord, which then send the signal back so that the erection can begin. These spinal nerves also activate the regions responsible for fluid release as well as the pubic muscles that contract in a special way during ejaculation.

The penis is almost entirely made up of a dense and cavernous mass of spongy tissue. When looked at more closely, this tissue is full of tiny chambers surrounding a deep artery. During an erection, when the artery brings in blood, these chambers are designed to maximize the blood intake. Just below and to the middle of these bodies runs the urethra, a tube that continues through to the head of the penis and allows urine to flow out. Around the urethra and the spongy tissue are the deep dorsal vein and more arteries. For the uncircumcised penis, these lie just beneath the outer skin and external blood veins.

When the penis is signaled to develop an erection, a large amount of blood rushes into the spongy tissue to fill it up. Blood normally flows through an organ fairly quickly, bringing nutrients in and taking wastes out. During an erection, however, it must stay inside the penis for an extended period of time. This is caused by small blood vessels that swell up and block the veins from letting any blood out. Meanwhile, more and more blood flows in until a full erection is attained. Blood is not released from the penis until after an orgasm, or until the stimulus ceases.

It is common that the man reaches a plateau soon after developing an erection. This process involves the heart beating incredibly fast, blood pressure is rising and the testicles growing 50 percent larger. Fluid from the prostate and seminal vesicles is released and fills up the urethra. During plateau, the penis can be likened to a hose that is full of water before it is turned on. Ejaculation is caused when the pelvic muscles tighten and push out the seminal fluids. The bladder’s internal valve closes so that the semen is forced out of the penis. Certain pelvic muscles are also responsible for the orgasm, as they contract rhythmically against one another. After ejaculation there is a period of time in which the penis is unable to respond to further stimulation. This time period is generally shorter for younger men.

The body’s natural process of successfully creating an erection that normally continues through to an ejaculation is dependent upon the healthy functioning of everything involved. While penis enlargement can be somewhat successful sticking to its aims and not interfering with the process, it is still held back by its inability to guarantee a normal penis shape and an adequate erectile direction.