This is consistent with other reports in the literature. How common is

erectile dysfunction after RP? Jason D. Engel, MD: One of the problems in answering this question has been the moving target that the reporting of postprostatectomy ED has been in the literature. The most commonly accepted definition of potency is an erection adequate for intercourse with or without the use of a PDE-5 inhibitor. Using this definition, a highly experienced surgeon can show potency rates of nearly 90% at 1 year. However, most of these men will not Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical report themselves as potent. Using validated surveys, which are a much stricter format, you almost always find that nearly 50% of men will have significant ED at 1 year. I tell all Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of my patients before surgery that all men will have severe ED after surgery, and that this will persist for a minimum of 6 months. Some men will start to have return of function at that point with help, but only 50% to 60% of men with good erectile function before surgery will consider themselves fully potent at 1 year. This scenario gives a much more realistic picture to Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the patient, and creates a setting whereby the patient realizes he and his partner will have to manage expectations. Herbert Lepor, MD: I agree with this perspective. Some experts

will report potency rates of 90%, but this is only in a highly selected group and, often, validated, self-administered questionnaires are not used to assess potency. In our reported series,4 a 50-year-old Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical man with

excellent baseline erections and no cardiovascular risk factors who undergoes bilateral nerve-sparing surgery will have over an 80% likelihood of recovering erectile function. However, our series also included men who are 70 years of age, who, despite being classified as potent at baseline, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical have only fair erections and cardiovascular risk factors. For these men, a potency rate of 30% to 40% is more realistic. The surgeon must reconcile that providing unrealistic expectations will lead to dissatisfied patients. Andrew McCullough, MD: Some degree of through ED is almost universal after RP. One of the clear problems is the definition of ED after RP. RP is one of the most commonly performed open procedures during urologic residency, and it has become apparent that many factors are involved in a successful erectile outcome after surgery. Preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative issues all influence outcome. Until 1992 and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) consensus selleck chemicals position paper on ED,5 there was no uniformly accepted definition of ED. Many of the articles published on post-RP ED before and after 1992 did not use uniform or standard definitions or validated questionnaires in reporting their rates of erectile function preservation. The first simple and validated questionnaire used by urologists was introduced by O’Leary and coworkers6 in 1995.