Intracavernous pharmacotherapy for impotence: selection of appropriate agent and dose.

We performed a retrospective analysis of 101 impotent patients using intracavernous self-injections as primary therapy for vasculogenic impotence. A total of 70 patients used an average of 5.58 micrograms prostaglandin E1 (95% confidence interval 4.83 to 6.34 micrograms) as a single agent, and 31 injected 0.40 ml. (95% confidence interval 0.342 to 0.457 ml.) of a combination of papaverine (12 mg./ml.), phentolamine (1 mg./ml.) and prostaglandin E1 (9 micrograms/ml.). We describe the procedure to establish the dosage for home use and discuss the implications of the low dosages relative to previous reports.