ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 6, 1997 TAG: 9701060095
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BOSTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE NEW TREATMENT slides painlessly into the urethra and is effective for the majority of men.
A new way of administering an impotence drug may allow some men to regain sexual function without painful injections.
The new method, which involves inserting a tiny drug-carrying pellet into the urethra, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration a few weeks ago and is expected to be on the market this month.
``This the first noninjectable drug delivery system for the treatment of impotence that is both safe and effective,'' said Dr. Harin Padma-Nathan.
Padma-Nathan, who runs the Male Clinic in Santa Monica, Calif., and is on the faculty at the University of Southern California, directed a study of the new method on men who, for an average of four years, had been unable to have erections.
The treatment is a medicine known as alprostadil, a synthetic form of the hormone prostaglandin E. It relaxes smooth muscle in the penis, allowing blood to flow in and cause an erection. It has been available for about two years but must be injected into the penis.
In the new approach, a slender plunger is pushed an inch and a half into the end of the penis to insert the tiny medicated pellet.
``It just slides right in. It really is painless. I've tried it,'' Padma-Nathan said.
Doctors tested the medicine on 1,511 impotent men who ranged in age from 27 to 88. When the medicine was given in the clinic, 961 of these men were able to achieve erections and agreed to further testing. They were randomly given either the real medicine or dummy pellets to use at home.
Sixty-five percent of the men getting the genuine treatment were able to have intercourse, compared with 19 percent in the comparison group.
The men typically got erections within five minutes, and they lasted about an hour.
The most common side effect was a dull ache in the penis, which occurred in 11 percent of the treatments. Doctors said the pain was caused by the medicine itself, not its administration, and only rarely did men refuse to continue the study because of it.
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