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Men faced with a diagnosis of erectile dysfunction may soon have another form of treatment to choose from.
Men who are tired of having to pop pills to maintain some semblance of a normal sex life may soon have a unique new form of treatment to try. And this alternative form of treatment holds out the promise — at least for some lucky men — of restoring normal erectile function.
Sounds like a pretty tall order, doesn’t it? Nevertheless, European researchers meeting in Madrid in early February 2016 seemed genuinely excited at the prospects offered by the treatment of erectile dysfunction with low-intensity extra-corporeal shock wave therapy, or LI-ESWT. Attendees at the 18th Annual Congress of the European Society of Sexual Medicine saw presentations from several research groups that have achieved promising results from studies evaluating the potential of this technology.
ESWT Used to Treat Other Ills
ESWT already is widely used for the treatment of various physical disorders, including erectile dysfunction, at medical centers around the globe. However, in the United States this form of therapy has been approved by the FDA only for the treatment of plantar fasciitis and tennis elbow. Its use as a mode of treatment for erectile dysfunction is not yet approved in the United States. But if scientific evidence of its benefits continues to grow, such approval may come sooner rather than later.
For men who are put off at the thought of having shocks administered to their genitals, it should first be pointed out that the shock waves used in this therapy are of such low intensity as to be almost imperceptible. Actually, LI-ESWT delivers sound waves that penetrate beneath the skin and encourage neovascularity, or the growth of new pathways for blood flow. Israeli urologist Ilan Gruenwald, M.D., one of the pioneers in the use of LI-ESWT for the treatment of ED, says his research team borrowed the idea from cardiologists who have used LI-ESWT to promote the development of new blood vessels in cardiac patients.
Optimizes Blood Flow to Penis
Like the PDE5 inhibitors, such as Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis, ESWT focuses on the primary cause of erectile dysfunction, which is insufficient blood flow to the penis to achieve and maintain an erection. However, it does it in an altogether different fashion and one that may have more long-lasting effects on erectile function than the oral medications. In some of the studies conducted on the effects of LI-ESWT, men were able to achieve spontaneous erections weeks or even months after shock wave treatment. As in its use with cardiac patients, LI-ESWT appears to promote the development of new blood vessels in the penis, thus increasing overall blood flow and facilitating the erectile process.
Different research teams have employed slightly varying treatment protocols for the use of LI-ESWT. However, the procedure used by Dr. Gruenwald’s Israeli research team is fairly typical. Shock waves are delivered by a probe that is attached to a compact electrohydraulic unit with a focused shock wave source. Technicians apply the same sort of gel used for sonography to the penile areas that are to be treated. The penis is then manually stretched, and the probe delivers multiple low-intensity shock waves at three sites along the shaft of the penis as well as two sites near the base of the penis. Each session lasts about 20 minutes, during which 300 shocks are delivered at each of the treatment points for a total of 1,500 tiny shock waves. For the purposes of the team’s pilot study, study participants were treated twice weekly for a period of three weeks, which was followed by a three-week period of no treatment, and concluded with a second three-week period of two treatments weekly.
20 Men with ED Recruited
For its pilot study of LI-ESWT, the Israeli research team recruited 20 men with mild to moderate erectile dysfunction caused by insufficient blood flow to the penis. The men ranged in age from 33 to 73. All had suffered from erectile dysfunction for at least six months, and 18 of the 20 test subjects had some degree of cardiovascular risk factors. All subjects were able to get and keep an erection sufficient for sexual intercourse with the aid of PDE5 inhibitors.
At a check-up one month after the conclusion of the study, all study participants showed significant improvements in erectile function. These improvements continued in all subjects when checked six months after the study’s conclusion. At the six-month checkup, half of the study participants were able to achieve erection spontaneously without the use of PDE5 inhibitors. None of the study subjects reported any pain from the treatments or any other adverse events.
The results of the Israeli team’s pilot study were published in the August 2010 issue of “European Urology.” In the conclusion to their study, researchers state that “based on our results, LI-ESWT appears to have the potential to be a rapid and curative therapy for ED. Even if the therapeutic effect will be short-lasting, it can easily be repeated. The promising results of this pilot study will hopefully encourage basic research to explore and understand the mechanism of action of this energy on biologic systems, as well as assist in finding further applications of this novel therapeutic modality in other fields of medicine.”
Follow-up Studies
Dr. Gruenwald and his fellow researchers have done two follow-up studies to supplement the findings from their pilot study. The results of all three studies were published in the April 2013 issue of “Therapeutic Advances in Urology.” Dr. Gruenwald’s team continues to explore the mechanisms and potential of LI-ESWT in the treatment of erectile function.
Similarly promising results were found in a study led by Danish urologist Anne B. Olsen. Dr. Olsen’s research team recruited 112 men, all of whom were unable to have intercourse either with or without medication. The study subjects were randomly divided into two groups, one of which received low-intensity shock wave therapy delivered once weekly for a period of five weeks. The other group underwent sham therapy using equipment identical to that delivering shock waves to the active group. At the conclusion of the study period, 29 men in the active group were able to achieve an erection and have intercourse without the use of any medications. Of those given the sham therapy, only five men showed similar results. Twenty-four weeks after the conclusion of therapy, seven men in the active group were still able to have sexual intercourse without using any drugs.
‘A Possible Cure’
Dr. Olsen’s team published the results of their study in a 2015 issue of the “Scandinavian Journal of Urology.” While acknowledging that more research remains to be done before any definitive conclusions can be drawn from preliminary research, the researchers point out that their study “shows a possible cure for some patients.” Moreover, researchers note that this form of treatment “is patient friendly, has no side-effects requiring treatment, and can be used for all patients.”
If you’d like to read additional articles about erectile dysfunction and other topics of interest to health consumers, check out our blog. To order prescription ED medications like Viagra and Cialis with online convenience and the utmost in discretion and customer service, visit eDrugstore.com.
Don Amerman is a freelance author who writes extensively about a wide array of nutrition and health-related topics.
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