FastSize® Brings Peyronie's Disease Treatment into in the 21st Century
Written By: Return to Category, Peyronie's Disease Articles
FastSize’s Clinical experience over the past few years, and now a clinical trial, are bearing fruit and producing an organized and staged approach to the treatment of Peyronie’s Disease.
One that actually gets results. It is about time. The disease was first described not long distant from the dark ages and treatment options have ranged from magic to quackery into present times,
especially judging from the Internet.
Urologists from all over the world attended this year’s convention of the American Urological Association held in Anaheim Ca. There, they heard many of the top specialists in the field present news and lectures on Peyronie’s Disease. They also heard about The Medway Peyronie’s Protocol, the first standardized approach to treatment of the disease ever to be developed in the US. It was developed with support from FastSize by Dr. Laurence Levine and the Medway Research Institute of Augusta, Ga.
This new protocol includes the first workable non-invasive treatment option to be offered to men who suffer from this condition. For many years the only option available to patients was surgery. This involved removal of the fibrotic plaque causing the Peyronie’s curvature of the penis, and then further work to counteract the bend. Surgery on the penis is not a man’s idea of a first option treatment.
More recently, researchers have focused on the effect several drugs have on the fibrotic plaque itself. This plaque is similar to scar tissue. It usually forms after some sort of trauma to the penis, such as a blow or forceful bending. When these drugs, Verapamil and Interferon, are introduced into the scar tissue, they cause it to soften and break up. The plaque forms within a tough sheath, the tunic albuginea, which surrounds the two chambers inside the penis that create erections. These are the corpora cavernosa. During the erection process, the plaque will not expand as the rest of the penis does. As the penis tissues opposite and around the plaque do expand, they cause a curvature that can be painful, and may even prevent intercourse. If the plaque can be softened, it will allow normal expansion of the penis and a reduction of the curvature.
The most successful way to introduce the drugs into the plaque is by injection. This is still not a pleasant prospect for the patient, but better than surgery. A more recent development is called Iontophoresis, a process that uses an electric device invented by an Italian company, Phsyion, to drive the drugs into the tissue using an electrical charge. A breakthrough in developing a completely non-invasive treatment for Peyronie’s Disease came last year when Chicago physician and researcher Laurence Levine ran a clinical trial sponsored by FastSize and designed by the Medway Research Institute. The Institute used the FastSize the Extender. The Extender is a mechanical traction device. It is designed to gently stretch the flaccid penis for several hours at a time, with a 20 minute or so break between two hour periods. The clinical trial found that this constant stretching action caused the Peyronie’s plaque to soften. The curvatures of the trial subjects were reduced by 10 to 45 per cent – every patient receiving some measure of improvement. The stretching regimen took place over a two to three month period.
The results of this trial became the big news of the AUA convention in Anaheim. The Medway Research Institute has combined the Extender, injection and iontophoresis therapy, and surgery, into a single multi-stage treatment protocol for sufferers of the disease.
Now, by analyzing each patient’s disease state using the Medway Protocol, a physician can determine were to start treatment – from non-invasive and beyond. The patient begins with a range of options and needs to proceed only as far as needed to get the degree of improvement desired.
This brings the treatment of Peyronie’s Disease into the 21st century where it belongs.
Urologists from all over the world attended this year’s convention of the American Urological Association held in Anaheim Ca. There, they heard many of the top specialists in the field present news and lectures on Peyronie’s Disease. They also heard about The Medway Peyronie’s Protocol, the first standardized approach to treatment of the disease ever to be developed in the US. It was developed with support from FastSize by Dr. Laurence Levine and the Medway Research Institute of Augusta, Ga.
This new protocol includes the first workable non-invasive treatment option to be offered to men who suffer from this condition. For many years the only option available to patients was surgery. This involved removal of the fibrotic plaque causing the Peyronie’s curvature of the penis, and then further work to counteract the bend. Surgery on the penis is not a man’s idea of a first option treatment.
More recently, researchers have focused on the effect several drugs have on the fibrotic plaque itself. This plaque is similar to scar tissue. It usually forms after some sort of trauma to the penis, such as a blow or forceful bending. When these drugs, Verapamil and Interferon, are introduced into the scar tissue, they cause it to soften and break up. The plaque forms within a tough sheath, the tunic albuginea, which surrounds the two chambers inside the penis that create erections. These are the corpora cavernosa. During the erection process, the plaque will not expand as the rest of the penis does. As the penis tissues opposite and around the plaque do expand, they cause a curvature that can be painful, and may even prevent intercourse. If the plaque can be softened, it will allow normal expansion of the penis and a reduction of the curvature.
The most successful way to introduce the drugs into the plaque is by injection. This is still not a pleasant prospect for the patient, but better than surgery. A more recent development is called Iontophoresis, a process that uses an electric device invented by an Italian company, Phsyion, to drive the drugs into the tissue using an electrical charge. A breakthrough in developing a completely non-invasive treatment for Peyronie’s Disease came last year when Chicago physician and researcher Laurence Levine ran a clinical trial sponsored by FastSize and designed by the Medway Research Institute. The Institute used the FastSize the Extender. The Extender is a mechanical traction device. It is designed to gently stretch the flaccid penis for several hours at a time, with a 20 minute or so break between two hour periods. The clinical trial found that this constant stretching action caused the Peyronie’s plaque to soften. The curvatures of the trial subjects were reduced by 10 to 45 per cent – every patient receiving some measure of improvement. The stretching regimen took place over a two to three month period.
The results of this trial became the big news of the AUA convention in Anaheim. The Medway Research Institute has combined the Extender, injection and iontophoresis therapy, and surgery, into a single multi-stage treatment protocol for sufferers of the disease.
Now, by analyzing each patient’s disease state using the Medway Protocol, a physician can determine were to start treatment – from non-invasive and beyond. The patient begins with a range of options and needs to proceed only as far as needed to get the degree of improvement desired.
This brings the treatment of Peyronie’s Disease into the 21st century where it belongs.