The Efficacy and Safety of Tadalafil 5 mg Once Daily in the Treatment of Erectile Dysfunction After Robot-Assisted Laparoscopic Radical Prostatectomy: 1-Year Follow-up

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of tadalafil 5 mg once daily use in the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED) after robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALP). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study retrospectively evaluated 92 patients who underwent RALP at Dong-A University Hospital. The patients were surveyed by use of the abridged five-item version of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) questionnaire, which was self-administered before surgery and at 6 months and 1 year after surgery. The 92 patients were classified into the tadalafil group (n=47) and the non-tadalafil group (n=45). Each group was then classified depending on the nerve-sparing (NS) procedure used: bilateral NS or unilateral NS. RESULTS: At 6 months, the total IIEF-5 scores of the tadalafil group and the non-tadalafil group were 10.0±3.4 and 7.0±4.0, respectively. At 1 year, the total IIEF-5 score in the tadalafil group was significantly greater than that in the non-tadalafil group (13.2±5.6 vs. 7.7±4.8, p<0.0001). Statistically significant improvements (p<0.05) were observed in the tadalafil group for all 5 domains of the IIEF-5 score, whereas in the non-tadalafil group there was no significant improvement in any of the domains at 1 year. The reported side effects were flushing (8.5%, n=4), headache (4.3%, n=2), and dizziness (2.1%, n=1). CONCLUSIONS: In ED patients after NS RALP, a once-daily dose of tadalafil 5 mg was well tolerated and significantly improved EF compared with that in the non-tadalafil group.