Erectile dysfunction

Abstract

Basic and clinical research has led to tremendous improvement in our knowledge, offering multiple novel, effective, and safe treatment options for erectile dysfunction patients. The knowledge gap between developments in Sexual Medicine and the clinical skills of practicing physicians is growing. Today urologists may have the essential knowledge and skills to communicate with their patients on sexuality issues, properly diagnose the etiology, unmask potential life-threatening comorbidities, and offer the available treatment options for erectile dysfunction. Lifestyle modifications, the newly developed shockwave therapy for vasculogenic erectile dysfunction, and vascular surgery may cure erectile dysfunction in selected cases. Furthermore, in the core of Urological practice are the so-called “difficult-to-treat” cases, i.e., the nonresponders to phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitors; urologists may be aware of salvage strategies for such patients and offer the most appropriate treatment option indicated for each individual case. Treatment-associated complications, although rare, are in some cases medical emergencies, i.e., priapism and prosthesis infection; therefore urologists may be trained to deal with. The currently available knowledge meets the clinical experience in this chapter, in an effort to “translate” clinical research evidence into clinical practice guidance.