It sounds painful, but shockwave therapy may
be an effective treatment for men who suffer from erectile dysfunction
(ED), according to a small study showcased at a meeting of the European
Society for Sexual Medicine.
Focused shockwaves, generated by a special
machine, is an established method of breaking up kidney stones. In
patients with heart disease, shockwave therapy is being used
increasingly to grow blood vessels.
"If the therapy can work in the small
vessels of the heart, we felt that it might work in the penis because
most patients with erectile dysfunction have vascular (blood vessel)
problems," Dr. Yoram Vardi of Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel,
told Reuters Health.
Vardi and colleagues tested their
low-intensity shockwave protocol in 20 men with mild or moderate ED
caused by reduced blood flow in the penis.
All of the men underwent a three-week course
of two weekly treatment sessions and a second identical round of
shockwave therapy starting three weeks later. During each treatment
session, low-energy shockwave therapy was applied to different areas of
the penis for a few minutes.
Erectile function, assessed at the time of
enrollment and four weeks after the end of treatment, improved
significantly in 15 of the men, Vardi and colleagues found.
There were no side effects related to the treatment.
Although not presented at the meeting,
six-month follow-up data show that 12 of the 15 patients who improved
significantly with treatment said they no longer needed to use Viagra or
a similar agent to treat their ED.'
Although drugs like Viagra, Levitra, and
Cialis are "extremely effective at treating ED, they only provide
functional improvement," Vardi noted. Shockwave therapy "could
potentially be useful to most ED patients."
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