Is there a cure for Peyronie's disease?

Peyronie’s disease

Peyronie’s disease is the medical term for the occurrence of plaques or abnormal scar tissue in tissues inside the penis. In the case of this disorder, usually, the penis in erection is bent and causes pain. This condition can be very stressful for a man, because the man with Peyronie’s disease cannot have normal sex.

Peyronie’s disease has many symptoms and warning signs. The most common is deformed penis in erection, but this deformity can become worse over time. Pain in the erection, pain during an orgasm and pain when it is touched are further symptoms of this disease. The man may feel flat lumps or a band of hard tissues under the skin of the penis. Moreover there are cases where shortening of the penis may occur as well as erectile dysfunction.

Medications for Peyronie’s disease

If some of these symptoms are noticed, the man must consult the doctor who will prescribe medications or proper treatment. The doctors usually do not prescribe the oral medications because their effectiveness has not been completely investigated yet. Some doctors prescribe the penile injections. In this kind of treatment, the medicine is injected in the scar tissue in the penis. Before each injection, the local anesthetic must be given to the patient, because the injections are painful. Although this treatment is not fully researched it may reduce the curvature of the penis and the pain.

The drugs given through the penile injections are verapamil, interferon and collagenase as well as vitamin E, potaba and cholcicine. Verapamil is the medicine that prevents the production of collagen which is the main cause for the development of scar tissue. Interferon is a protein which has the same effect as verapamil, whereas collagenase is an enzyme that is very effective in disintegrating collagen and reducing or removing of some scar tissues.

Surgeries for Peyronie’s disease

Peyronie’s disease may be severe and, in that case, the doctors usually recommend the surgery. There are three types of surgery for Peyrenie’s disease:

The Nesbit procedure refers to the shortening of the tunica albuginea on the side of the penis opposite the scar tissue. This type of surgery is for the men with adequate length of penis and a less severe curvature, because this surgery shortens the length of the penis.Lengthening the affected side is the surgery where the scar tissue is cut on several places, or when the scar tissues are removed. In order to fill the holes in the tunica albuginea the surgeon takes the tissue grafts and places them there. This type of surgery is often recommended for the men with short penis and that have severe curvature of the penis.Penile implants are usually recommended for the men that have Peyronie’s disease and erectile dysfunction.