Intracavernous calcitonin gene-related peptide plus prostaglandin E1: possible alternative to penile implants in selected patients.

The implantation of a penile prosthesis is still the ultima ratio for patients with erectile dysfunction who fail other treatment options such as pharmacotherapy and penile venous surgery. Despite mostly favorable results regarding restoration of erectile capacity, penile allografts are often not accepted for various reasons. Therefore, pharmacotesting with a mixture of calcitonin gene-related peptide and prostaglandin E1 (CGRP/PGE1) was offered to different selected patients populations: 28 patients with erectile dysfunction and venous leakage who failed penile venous surgery, 28 patients with erectile dysfunction and venous leakage (who refused penile venous surgery) and 12 patients without venous leakage, but poor response to maximum doses of papaverine/phentolamine, received 5 micrograms CGRP plus 10 micrograms PGE1. Erections sufficient for intercourse were noted in 19/28 (67.9%), 20/28 (71.4%) and 11/12 (91.7%) patients, respectively. Our data show that a combination of CGRP and PGE1 may be an alternative to penile implants in selected patients.