Endovascular Therapy for Erectile Dysfunction

Brief Summary: Background and pathophysiology Erectile dysfunction is a serious disease with a significant impact on the quality of life. Male erection is a complex mechanism that involves neuro-vascular tissue responses with several phases including arterial dilatation, smooth muscle cells relaxation and ultimately veno-occlusive activation. Vasculogenic erectile dysfunction can be divided in arteriogenic (when there is insufficiency of arterial component of erection due to atherosclerotic plaque encroachment of the penile arteries) or venogenic (where there is insufficiency of the venous component of erection for venous endoleak) Standard treatment Erectile dysfunction is commonly treated by oral phosphodiesterase-5-inhbitor (PDE5i) administration. However, up to 50% of men have a suboptimal response to PDE5-i therapy with the need of additional therapies. New treatment Only recently several studies have been published on percutaneous treatment of ED using POBA, Drug eluting balloons (both paclitaxel and sirolimus, PEB and SES) and drug eluting stents (DES). Aim of the study The study was aimed at evaluating both arteriogenic and venogenic endovascular treatments in patients affected by erectile dysfunction in an Italian patient cohort.