endovascular treatment of erectile dysfunction?

[Gvataken]

ZEN trial

Las Vegas, NV - Thirty-day and three-month results from an eagerly awaited first trial to test a drug-eluting stent (DES) for the treatment of erectile dysfunction suggest that this novel use for a DES is safe and associated with significant improvement in erectile function and satisfaction.

Interesting trial called the ZEN trial. This showcases that perhaps there is a vascular component to at least a subset of patients with male erectile dysfunciton. The study noted a couple of key points that the pelvic vascular anatomy is complex and the true incidence of internal pudendal artery stenosis is unknown in the erectile dysfunction group.

Some interesting possible applications for future interventionalists in the elderly male population. This would include not only treatment of erectile dysfunction as well as the emerging treatment of BPH with prostatic artery embolization.

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[IRneuroIR]

I think these sorts of trials and innovative ideas may open a new realm of disease processes that IR can be involved in diagnosing and treating. There has been some promising initial evidence of the use of prostatic artery embolization for BPH and now some early evidence from this ZEN trial. But, like anything, we will need larger scale trials and randomization to prove not only efficacy and safety, but also cost-effectiveness as compared with current/standard medical therapies. Exciting stuff though...

 

[Dotterer]

Very interesting, thank you for the information on that trial.

 

[officedepot]

wow that's awesome. If IR can come up with a treatment better than current therapies for ED they cannot then go around and train urologists how to do it...

 

[T99]

...and then Urology takes over from here. Seriously, IR needs to take ownership of procedures like this to make sure that "medicine" keeps progressing and not become another cash cow for another speciality.

 

[NappingGuppy]

I think some IR's are finding new ways to get to the patients first. I chuckled when I saw a Groupon ad in San Francisco advertise for vein ablative treatment - maybe it seems cheesy, but I thought it was a brilliant way to sidestep entrenched referral patterns and find new groups of patients.

Perhaps this will be no different