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Prostaglandin E1 long‐term self‐injection programme for treatment of erectile dysfunction—a follow‐up of at least 5 years*
Author(s) -
Hauck E. W.,
Altinkilic B. M.,
SchroederPrintzen I.,
Rudnick J.,
Weidner W.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
andrologia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.633
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1439-0272
pISSN - 0303-4569
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0272.1999.tb01458.x
Subject(s) - medicine , prostaglandin e1 , erectile dysfunction , vasoactive , intracavernous injection , etiology , incidence (geometry) , surgery , side effect (computer science) , urology , anesthesia , physics , computer science , optics , programming language
Summary. Prostaglandin EI (PGE1) is currently the vasoactive drug of choice for intracavernous self‐injection therapy in the treatment of erectile dysfunction. PGE1 is often said to have a low incidence of side‐effects. However, real long‐term follow‐up reports are rare. Here, a report is presented on 32 patients who joined a long‐term self‐injection programme in which they used PGE1 for a minimum of 5 years under standardized protocol conditions. All these patients had an organic aetiology of erectile dysfunction, and their mean age was 58.7 ± 8.6 years. The period of observation was on average 75.4 ± 16.9 months, and the PGE1 dosage 13.5 ± 5.9μg. A total of 6799 injections were registered. The average number of injections was 213 ± 127 per patient, which is 2.8 injections per month and patient. As regards side‐effects, haematomas were registered in 1.9% of the patients and five cases of prolonged erection (0.07%) caused by unauthorized redosing were noted. Three patients developed reversible penile nodules. In 10 patients, the initial dosage had to be increased. Five patients dropped out after 5 years, none of them due to treatment complications. It is concluded that PGE1 self‐injection therapy is a simple and reliable method for long‐term use with hardly any side‐effects. The patients do not stop treatment because of complications.