[Effectiveness of and tolerance to intracavernous injection of moxisylyte in patients with erectile dysfunction: effect/dose relationship versus placebo].

The authors investigated the optima dose (efficacy and safety) of moxisylyte, an alpha-blocking agent, in a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover study in 30 patients. The origin of the erectile dysfunction was predominantly psychological in 14 patients and neurological in 16 patients. Each patient received 4 intracavernous injections in a randomized order (placebo, 10, 20, 30 mg of moxisylyte) at 7-day intervals. Regardless of the dose, moxisylyte induced significantly greater penile responses than placebo on all erection criteria. The frequency of responses allowing sexual intercourse appeared to be dose-dependent in the two aetiological groups. The erectile responses most frequently obtained were complete rigidity in the "neurological" group and tumescence in the "psychological" group. The safety was excellent for 95.6% of injections and no case of priapism was observed. One patient (neurological patient) experienced two prolonged erections after the dose of 20 mg and another patient (psychological patient) reported 2 headaches after the dose of 30 mg. No pain was experienced on injection. Moxisylyte is very well tolerated and is able to induce an erectile response from the dose of 10 mg. This dose appears to be sufficient in patients with central neurological erectile dysfunction; a dose of 20 mg tends to improve the quality of response in patients with a predominantly psychological disorder, although the differences observed between the doses were not statistically significant in this number limited of patients.