BREAKTHROUGH IN PEYRONIE'S DISEASE
Report #7244
Peyronie's disease occurs when a man's erection bends in one direction. A recent report proposes a safe and effective cure: injections of a blood pressure medicine (1).
Men have balloon-like blood vessels in their penis that fill with blood when they have erections. Sometimes scar tissue forms in the balloons. Scars cannot expand as much as balloons do, so the erected penis bends toward the scar side. Men most likely to suffer Peyronie's disease often have high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol and uric acid levels, which weaken blood vessel walls (2). Then when a man makes love, the trauma breaks these blood vessels which heal with scarring (3). Men with Peyronie's disease are usually told to live with it unless the erection becomes painful or the bend is so great that the man cannot engage in sexual relations. Then the usual treatment is to cut out the scar and replace it with a graft. Needless to say, this procedure doesn't always work. An exciting new report show that injections of the blood pressure medication, verapamil, into the scar every two weeks for 24 weeks cured most men with his condition. See report #1241; check with your doctor.
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News
1) Levine, L.A. Treatment of Peyronie's disease with intralesional verapamil injection.
Journal of Urology. OCT 1997;158(4):1395-1399. 2) Muralidhar, S.; Kumar, B.; Sharma, S.K.; Sharma, M.; Mandal, A.K. Etiologic factors
in Peyronie's disease. International Journal of Dermatology. AUG 1997;36(8):579-581. 3) "Jarow, J.P.; Lowe, F.C. Penile trauma: An etiologic factor in Peyronie's
disease and erectile dysfunction. Journal of Urology. OCT 1997;158(4):1388-1390. In a
previous study, 83% of 14 patients noted that their symptoms of Peyronie's disease had
arrested or improved after intralesional injection of verapamil. Using a multiple puncture
technique, 10 mg. of verapamil diluted to 10 cc were distributed throughout the plaque
every 2 weeks for a total of 12 injections. Pain resolved in 97% of the patients who
presented with pain after a mean of 2.5 injections. After therapy, 76% reported a
subjective decrease in curvature, 9.5% noted an increase and 14.5% remained unchanged. Of
the treated patients 72% reported an improvement in the ability to engage in coitus.
Objective measurements demonstrated that curvature was decreased in 54% of the patients,
increased in 11% and remained unchanged in 34%. Verapamil injection therapy resulted in a
reduction of pain in 97% of the patients, an improvement in sexual function in 72%, a
reduction of deformity in 86%, an improvement in distal rigidity in 93% and an objective
reduction of curvature in 54%. 4) D Chevallier, E Benizri, P Volpe, J Amiel, J4 Toubol. Peyronie's disease: Review of
historical, epidemiologic, and physiopathologic data. Diagnosis and therapeutic approach.
Revue de Medecine Interne 18: Suppl. 1 (1997):S41-S45.
Reported 106/97; Checked 9/5/05