Therapy for organic erectile dysfunction

Erectile dysfunction is a common disease of men. It is associated with various comorbidities and has a prevalence of about 50% in the 7th decade. Erectile dysfunction often affects the quality of life of the patient and his partner, and it is very important to offer adequate therapy that respects the individual circumstances of each patient. The mandatory diagnostic work-up includes a medical and psychosexual history, a physical examination and routine laboratory tests. Besides psychotherapy, oral pharmacotherapy with oral PDE-5 inhibitors (sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil) is the most effective therapy for erectile dysfunction and is superior to centrally acting drugs (yohimbine). In cases of failure or contraindication of oral pharmacotherapy, local pharmacotherapy is the second-line therapy. The third-line options are vacuum erectile devices and penile implants, and these have a high patient satisfaction. New therapeutic strategies such as anti-serotoninergic substrates and growth hormone offer a promising future for the therapy of erectile dysfunction but remain to be evaluated. © Springer Medizin Verlag 2005.