Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) in the treatment of Peyronie's disease

Extracorporeal shock wave application is a new treatment in Peyronie's dise ase and has been used for several years fn Germany. We describe our results with ESWT in the treatment of Peyronie's disease. in the period from 3/99 to 9/2000 we treated 30 patients with Peyronie's disease. 19 of the group W ere treated previously without success. The patients were interviewed on a regular basis about pain and problems with sexual intercourse. The plaques were examined at regular intervals palpatorically and with ultrasound. Befo re and after therapy the patients took polaroid pictures of penile curvatur e. In an average of 4.5 sessions per patient, we applied 2000-4000 shock wa ves per plaque at four-week intervals (ReflecTron/ HMT-Kreuzlingen). We fou nd out that 13 out of 16 patients had a decrease of pain score. Bending of the erect penis improved in 17 out of 29 cases, rigidity during erection in 13 out of 24 cases. 17 out of 30 patients had more satisfactory intercours e after treatment. ESWT seems to be a promising new option for therapy in a case of Peyronie's disease without any serious side-effects and should be tried before a penile operation.