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Nonsurgical management of Peyronie’s disease

Nature Reviews Urology volume 16, pages 172–186 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Peyronie’s disease is not a rare disorder, and it can be devastating to the affected man. Although the gold-standard treatment of Peyronie’s disease is surgery in the stable phase, nonoperative management is preferred by some men and is the only treatment option in the acute phase of the disease, when surgery is contraindicated. No oral or topical therapy has been shown to be efficacious when administered alone, but some evidence supports their use as part of a combination therapy regimen. Intralesional therapies, particularly collagenase clostridium histolyticum (CCH), have shown promise. Mechanical therapies can provide benefit when applied for prolonged periods of time, improving penile curvature, indentation, and even restoring length. Regardless of the modality chosen, patient counselling is paramount, as recovery of the penis to its predisease state is highly unlikely. Thus, although many options exist for nonsurgical management of Peyronie’s disease, surgery remains the best option for men who desire the most reliable and rapid pathway to a functionally straight, erect penis. The goal of nonsurgical therapy should be a scientifically feasible, safe approach to prevent the progression of, or reduce, deformity and improve sexual function.

Key points

  • No currently available oral or topical therapy is effective as a monotherapy, but some have shown encouraging results as a part of combination therapy.

  • Intralesional verapamil, interferon-α2b, and collagenase clostridium histolyticum (CCH) have been shown to considerably reduce penile curvature, but they cannot achieve absolute straightness.

  • Mechanical therapy and, in particular, traction therapy, is dependent on duration of use and has consistently been shown to delay the progression of Peyronie’s disease and reduce penile deformity.

  • Surgical therapy remains the gold standard and the therapeutic option with the highest probability of achieving functional straightness.

  • Establishing reasonable patient expectations and joint decision-making between patient and clinician are key to achieving patient satisfaction.

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Fig. 1: Cross section of the penis.
Fig. 2: Proposed pathogenesis of Peyronie’s disease.
Fig. 3: Mechanisms of action of oral therapies for Peyronie’s disease.
Fig. 4: Mechanisms of action for topical and intralesional therapies for Peyronie’s disease.
Fig. 5: Mechanisms of action for radiotherapies and mechanical therapies.

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Nature Reviews Urology thanks T. Bivalacqua and other anonymous reviewer(s) for their help with the peer review of this manuscript.

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    Peter Tsambarlis & Laurence A. Levine

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L.A.L. declares that he has acted as a consultant for Coloplast Corporation, Boston Scientific, and Hybrid Medical and as a lecturer for Abbvie. P.T. declares no competing interests.

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Tsambarlis, P., Levine, L.A. Nonsurgical management of Peyronie’s disease. Nat Rev Urol 16, 172–186 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41585-018-0117-7

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