People may be used to getting spam e-mails offering discounts on Cialis, Levitra or Viagra, but if a new clinical trial is successful, men with erectile dysfunction may someday be flooded with e-mails for another option: a stent.
Medtronic has begun testing on a new pelvic stent for men who have not been helped by drugs. Investigators will begin with 50 patients at 10 different medical centers.
Dr. Ajay Nehra, a professor of urology at the Mayo Clinic, agreed that young men whose erectile dysfunction stemmed from traumatic injury would be the most likely to be helped, and said they may prefer a stenting operation to a pill, since an erection would not feel as medically induced later on.
"Men would ideally like to have natural, spontaneous erection, and that's why the medical device is trying to look at alternative options than pills, per se," said Nehra
ABC News, by Joseph Brownstein, 10/15/09
Tags: erectile dysfunction, stent, Urology