What about penile injection therapy for erectile dysfunction?
Penile injection therapy is non surgical technique used to treat impotence. The man injects medication (usually alprostadil) into the base of his penis. This causes the penis to become hard almost immediately. The erection then lasts for up to one to two hours. Use of the injections is limited to not more than once a day and three times a week. Several clinic visits are usually needed to establish the dose of medication required. Treatment is available on the NHS.
Penile injections have the advantage of not involving surgery. They are also effective in many dialysis patients. It is not known, however, whether the success rate for these injections in kidney patients is as high as 70%.
Injection therapy can be an alternative for the 30-40% of men who commonly fail with Viagra. The best treatment for erectile dysfunction, however, depends on many things. These include a man's health and personal and physical tolerance for the treatment. A man with erectile dysfunction should involve his spouse or partner and his doctor in the treatment decision.
There are several drugs which can be injected directly into the erectile tissues of the penis to cause an erection. The most commonly used are papaverine (Papaverine hydrochloride), phentolamine (Regitine), and prostaglandin E1 (Caverject, Prostin, or Alpoprostadil), which can be taken singularly or in combination. Erection usually begins within 15 minutes and may last several hours.
Penile injection therapy involves injecting a single drug or a combination of drugs into the side of the penis. This produces a hard erection that can last for one to two hours. These drugs must be used exactly as prescribed by the physician. If not used correctly, the result could be a prolonged erection, called priapism. When priapism occurs, the blood fails to drain from the penis. This can damage the penile tissue and be extremely painful. A person who has a history of substance abuse, therefore, would be a risky candidate for this therapy since its success requires the exact use of the prescribed drug. Penile injections would be a difficult option for an individual with SCI
with limited hand function to use on his own. He must have a partner who is willing to learn to give the injections.
Some men must combine the injection with an external vacuum device to get satisfactory results. This procedure, however, can be cumbersome and expensive. The additional time it takes tends to reduce romantic spontaneity.
Caverject is the trade name for an injectable solution of prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) or alprostadil, which is manufactured by Pharmacia-Upjohn. There are other variants of this including Edex, a similar product from Schwarz-Pharma. Caverject makes the shot kit. It is portable and does not require refrigeration until you mix the ingredients. It's expensive, compared to the PGE1 or PPP (Prostaglandin, Papaverine and Phentolamine). A popular complaint is that the needle is very large. Many here will tell you to purchase the small needles that diabetics use for insulin injections. Mix your powder and liquid using the large needle supplied with the kit, then change to the small needle for the injection. The reason the company supplies large needles may be the worry you might break off the needle in your dick and sue them.
Bimix and Trimix are injectables for intracavernosal administration. They refer to any combination of either two or three chemicals. Bimix is often a mixture of papaverine and phentolamine, while Trimix (PPP) would add PGE1. Other cocktails are used, mainly in Europe. These mixtures are not commercially available but must be mixed by a compounding pharmacy. They are generally much cheaper than Caverject or Edex, and tend to minimize aching in the penis or testicles which is a problem in some men with Prostaglandin (PGE-1) alone. A compounding pharmacy is one which will create custom medications on a doctor's prescription; it usually doesn't include the corner drugstore or large chain pharmacies. |
