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Surgery
A urologist may recommend surgery to remove plaque
or help straighten the penis during an erection. Medical
experts recommend surgery for long-term cases when
symptoms have not improved
the curve or bend in the penis does not allow the
man to have sexual intercourse
Some surgical methods can cause shortening of the
penis. Medical experts suggest waiting 1 year or more
from the onset of symptoms and 3 months witout any
evolutivity before having surgery because the course of
Peyronie’s disease is different in each man.
A urologist may recommend the following surgeries:
Incision-Excision-Grafting.
These procedures involve
the replacement or expansion of scarred tunica
albuginea with grafts of healthy tissue from another
site. More recently, surgeons have been using grafts to
expand the contracted scars (or plaque) without
excising them. Though some calcified plaques still
require removal, this non-excisional approach seems
less disturbing to erectile function, and less likely to
cause postoperative impotence. A urologist will cut or
remove the plaque and attach a patch of a vein, or
biomaterial. This procedure may straighten the penis
and restore some lost length from Peyronie’s disease.
However, some men may experience numbness of the
penis and ED after the procedure.
Plications.
This operation, or its various modifications,
corrects bending by plicating the convex or outer side of
the bend. Counteracting the relative shortage of tunica
albuginea on the concave side straightens the penis,
though length is reduced slightly as a consequence. Still,
this procedure is less likely to cause numbness and
erectile dysfunction than tissue grafting, and remains the
first choice for moderate bends without associated
diameter reduction.
Penile implantation.
A urologist implants a device into
the penis that can cause an erection and help straighten
it during an erection. Penile implants may be considered
if a man has both Peyronie’s disease and ED. In some
cases, an implant alone will straighten the penis
adequately. If the implant alone does not straighten the
penis, a urologist may combine implantation with one of
the other two surgeries. Once a man has an implant, he
must use the device to have an erection.
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