A study involving doctors from the Urology Service of the Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro-Majadahonda, attached to the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid (UAM), describe how a a non-invasive technique, called tunnelling, improves the results of collagenase of Clostridium histolyticum when injected in patients with penile curvature due to Peyronie's disease. The results have been published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Acquired penile curvature, also known as Peyronie's disease, is a condition that affects up to 8.9% of the male population; however, not all patients visit a urologist for this condition. Until 2014 no approved medication for this disease was available, and it was only possible to correct the malformations that appear in the penis with more or less aggressive surgical techniques that could have different sequelae.
The arrival of collagenase of Clostridium histolyticum, injected into the plaques that appear in the penis of these patients, has revolutionized the treatment of the disease, and can achieve improvements in curvature of up to 40% with no need for surgery.
"In a healthcare system in which it is undeniable that cost-opportunity exists, the economic evaluation of this type of therapy is imperative, and any measures that optimise the effectiveness of these treatments are becoming more and more valued", affirms a team of doctors from the Urology Service of the Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda, attached to the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid (UAM), and led by doctors Martínez-Salamanca and Fernández Pascual.
Now, in a paper published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, this team has found an alternative that improves results without incurring greater complications or increasing the cost of treatment.
"Applying a new non-invasive technique, which consists simply of perforating and creating tunnels in the plaque with a needle, we achieved an improvement in the curvature change of 51.2% after treatment," says Esaú Fernández Pascual, lead author of the paper.
"We are not the first to modify the original treatment protocol with collagenase of Clostridium histolyticum, but we are the only ones who have concentrated the doses, decreased visits and employed a mechanical technique such as tunnelling to achieve the best possible optimization of this therapy," said Juan Ignacio Martínez Salamanca, co-author of the study.
Professor Joaquín Carballido, head of the Urology Service at the Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda and head of the Department of Surgery at the UAM, as well as doctors Claudio Martínez Ballesteros and Jorge Turo Antona, both urologists at the aforementioned hospital, also participated in the study.
The illustrations were made by Dr. Javier González García, currently a urologist at the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón. Also co-authors of the work are the researcher Javier Angulo ( Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria) and Dr. Luis Miguel Quintana Franco (Lyx Instituto de Urología, Madrid).
