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Surgical treatment of premature ejaculation: a narrative review

Abstract

Recurrence after drug cessation is the biggest drawback of medical premature ejaculation (PE) treatments. Although these treatments are demonstrated to be safe and effective, most of the PE patients are interested in a more permanent solution. Despite the fact that currently available guidelines do not recommend surgical treatment for PE, some surgical interventions have been commonly performed for many years, especially in the Asian countries. The main purpose of these surgical treatments is to decrease the sensitivity of the glans penis. However, they are associated with irreversible complications such as penile deformity, sensory loss and erectile dysfunction. The aim of this narrative review is to summarize the advantages and disadvantages of various surgical interventions introduced for the treatment of PE. PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science have been utilized to search articles about glans penis augmentation and penile dorsal nerve interventions. A total of 11 articles were included, three articles excluded because they were in non-English languages. Glans penis augmentation offered a less invasive treatment that avoids severe side effects but requires retreatment in time. Selective dorsal neurectomy provided a more invasive but curative treatment alternative. However, more clinical data are necessary before surgical treatment options can be recommended to patients with PE.

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Fig. 1: GPA techniques.

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Authors

Contributions

MDD and ECS conceived of the presented idea. MG designed the structure of the article. MDD and MG did a literature review. MDD, MG and ECS drafted the manuscript and designed the figures. ECS supervised the drafting of this work. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ege Can Serefoglu.

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Competing interests

ECS is a consultant and share-holder of a company which develops electrical patchs for the treatment of premature ejaculation (Virlity Medical, Haifa, Israel). The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

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Deger, M.D., Gül, M. & Serefoglu, E.C. Surgical treatment of premature ejaculation: a narrative review. Int J Impot Res (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-023-00771-9

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