Impact on the Quality of Erections after Completing a Low-Intensity Extracorporeal Shock Wave Treatment Cycle on a Group of 710 Patients

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to evaluate the response to low-intensity extracorporeal shock wave therapy in a group of patients with organic vascular erectile dysfunction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is an observational retrospective study. The researchers reviewed 710 patients with a clinical diagnosis of organic vascular erectile dysfunction (ED) of more than 3-month duration from male sexual health clinics of the Boston Medical Group from 12 cities in Spain and 4 in Mexico. Patients received 5 outpatient shock wave therapy sessions. They were evaluated with the erection hardness score (EHS) before the first session (n = 710), at the end of the last session (n = 710), and one month after the last session (n = 412). RESULTS: In the first examination, the EHS improved in 43.1% (306/710) of subjects compared to the baseline measurement and ability to penetrate increased from 26.8% to 44% (p < 0.0001). In the second examination, the ability to penetrate was 37.9%, lower than in the first (p=0.042) but higher than the baseline (p=0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the shock wave therapy with or without concomitant treatments improved the quality of erections in patients with erectile dysfunction treated in specialised male sexual health clinics. This trial is registered with NCT03237143.