ISRAEL: Shockwave therapy may provide "revolutionary" cure for erectile dysfunction

Record ID: 396670

  • Title: ISRAEL: Shockwave therapy may provide "revolutionary" cure for erectile dysfunction
  • Date: 6th January 2010
  • Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (RECENT) (REUTERS) COUPLE WALKING DOWN TEL AVIV STREET MAN SITTING AT CAFE TWO YOUNG MEN SITTING IN CAFE HAIFA, ISRAEL (RECENT) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF RAMBAM MEDICAL CENTRE DOCTOR TURNING ON OMNISPEC MACHINE WHICH PRODUCES SHOCK WAVES VARIOUS OF DOCTOR DEMONSTRATING SHOCKWAVE THERAPY TO MAN LYING ON HOSPITAL BED OMNISPEC SCREEN SHOWING AMOUNT OF SH
  • Embargoed: 21st January 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA49I89JQ3J38R1TL9A12F12SLJ
  • Story Text: Israeli researches say shock waves may cure erectile dysfunction (ED) a condition they say affects 40 percent of men between the ages of 40 to 70.
    Professor Yoram Vardi, head of the neuro-urology unit at Rambam medical centre in Haifa, Israel, tested a low-frequency shockwave treatment on 20 men suffering from ED. Vardi says he was sceptical at the beginning of the trial but the results soon proved to be 'unbelievable'.
    "The shock wave therapy is a sound energy produced by a machine, that enters the tissue probably increasing or changing something in the vasculature of the tissue and by that increasing the blood flow to this organ," said Vardi.
    He said he asked himself, 'if shockwave methodology works on kidney stones, orthopaedic problems and heart problems, then why not use it on the penis?' All of the men who participated in Vardi's pilot study underwent two weekly treatment sessions over a three week period. During each session low-energy shockwave therapy was applied to five different points on the penis for approximately 20 minutes. After a three week break, the men then repeated the 21-day course of treatment undergoing two sessions per week.
    Erectile dysfunction, assessed at the time of enrolment and four weeks after the end of treatment, improved significantly in 15 of the 20 men. Most of the patients stopped any medication they were on and could now get an erection without any pharmacological treatment, Vardi said.
    Vardi said the treatment is completely painless and that he has observed no unwanted side-effects.
    "This will be the first treatment (which) can reverse, or cure, a chronic problem of erection. All the other treatments that we have today like Viagra, Cialis or Levitra, are treatments that are given only for one time and when (patients) stop to take the medication, the problem is still there," Vardi says.
    One of Vardi's patients who took part in the study, a 64-year-old Israeli engineer who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters Television about the difficulties caused by ED.
    "It was a vicious cycle in which my sexual life was deteriorating and I couldn't find a way out of it. Both me and my wife suffered quite a lot from that," he said.
    About a year ago he heard Professor Vardi was asking for volunteers to try a new treatment. As the pills were not helpful in his case, he says, he decided to take part in the study.
    "At the moment I can get easily a very strong erect penis and it truly seems to be helping," he said.
    Another of Vardi's patients, a 33-year-old psychologist from Israel, described his experience of ED. "It made me very vulnerable, very insecure about my ability to have sex, about my ability to meet women, to make relationships. It affected my life in a really negative way," he said.
    But after receiving the shockwave treatment, he gradually began to feel a significant improvement.
    "I feel much more secure now that I can function, I can perform sexually, I'm much less dependent on pills," he said.
    Professor Vardi says that what the shockwave treatment actually does to the penis is still unknown. Studies performed on other organs, have shown that shockwaves generate angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels.
    Vardi believes that the shockwaves cause a biological change in the penis, affecting the tissue and improving the blood flow, but this still has to be studied.
    Vardi's research is now in the middle of a placebo control group study. He says the next stage will be to perform the treatment on some 200 men in order to better define what kind of patients respond to the shockwave therapy.
    If the study proves successful, Vardi believes shockwave therapy may revolutionize ED treatment. It will not only provide a long-term cure for an existing condition, but could also perhaps prevent it among patients who are at high-risk for ED, Vardi says.
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