Low intensity shock waves have arrived to provide a solution to pathologies where drugs are insufficient in their results.
Shockwaves for the treatment of erectile dysfunction
One of them is erectile dysfunction, which achieves optimal results in patients who have not responded to medical treatment. This inability to maintain an erection, with adequate turgidity to allow a satisfactory sexual encounter, affects more than two million Spaniards (19% of men between the ages of 25 and 70, according to a national clinical study carried out in 2001).
When the dysfunction is mild to moderate, treatment is started with drugs such as Sildenafil, Vardenafil, Avanafil or Tadalafil. There is also a gel to be applied inside the urethra a quarter of an hour before intercourse.
When erectile dysfunction is resistant to the usual pharmacological treatment, and before considering other more aggressive measures (Prostaglandin injections in the penis, prosthesis placement, revacularization surgery, etc.), shock waves have come to occupy a very interesting place in the treatment of impotence, since it is a totally innocuous therapy, painless and with long-term results, since it is based on angiogenesis (formation of new blood vessels).
Shock waves for the treatment of Peyronie’s disease
As for Peyronie’s disease, or penile incurvation, we know that 388 men per 100,000 inhabitants suffer from it, affecting 1.5% of men between the ages of 30 and 39, and 6.5% over the age of 70. We do not know what it is due to, but it is the presence of a plaque of fibrosis at the level of the penis that causes a retraction of the penis, causing a painful incurvation, in its initial stage, which can make penetration impossible. In addition, 50% of cases may present some degree of erectile dysfunction.
So far, pharmacological treatments have been insufficient to prevent progression of the fibrotic plaque. Well, shock waves can, in many cases, make the pain disappear and paralyze the progression of the plaque, avoiding surgery.