Patients will be happy to hear that PRP therapy is a treatment option for PD – less invasive than traditional treatment methods.
Peyronie’s disease is a condition that often develops later in life and causes structural changes in the penis, leading to pain, deformation, and erectile dysfunction. Many men who suffer from this condition find it embarrassing to discuss and are reluctant to seek treatment. This can result in the condition becoming worse over time.
As the disease progresses, the symptoms worsen until they eventually reach a stable state. Unfortunately, there are few treatments currently available that are widely successful, and the surgical options that are available are invasive and may ultimately worsen the erectile difficulties experienced by a patient.
Fortunately, new advances in regenerative medicine including both stem cell therapies and therapies using platelet-rich plasma provide new methods of treatment for this condition that may be able to provide another option to surgery. Patients will be happy to hear that PRP therapy may be a treatment option that is far less invasive than traditional treatment methods. But first, let’s discuss what the disease is.
What is Peyronie’s disease?
Peyronie’s disease is the name given to the condition where fibrous tissue forms inside of the penis, which can be painful and cause the penis to bend or shorten. This tissue appears in the form of plaques, or sections of scar tissue that build up in some areas of the penis. This most commonly happens on the upper surface of the penis, causing it to bend upwards.
The fibrous plaques build up over the course of around 3 to 12 months until the condition stabilizes. They then interfere with the process of achieving and maintaining an erection and can also alter the structure and appearance of the penis, particularly when it is erect. As well as bending in a given direction, the penis may be shortened by the plaques, or have visible lumps where the plaques are located.
The underlying cause is unclear, although it is suspected that it is triggered by trauma to the penis. This trauma might occur during sex or through a non-sexual impact on the penis. Since not every incident of trauma to the penis leads to the disease, scientists suspect that there is a range of underlying factors that might make an individual more or less susceptible to the disease.
The formation of plaques comes in two distinct stages, known as the acute phase and the chronic phase. The acute phase is the name given to the part of the condition while plaques are continuing to form, while the chronic phase is the name given to the part of the condition that occurs once the formation has ceased and the maximum amount of plaque is present.
Acute Phase
During the acute phase, a patient suffering from Peyronie’s disease is likely to feel pain in the penis and experience a progressive curving or shortening of the penis. Some treatments are available in this phase to reduce the impact of the symptoms while they are still developing.
Chronic Phase
At this point, there are no further changes to the shape or structure of the penis, and the pain usually subsides. Some forms of treatments are best used in the chronic phase, once the full extent of the plaque formation has been determined.
Platelet Rich Plasma for Peyronie’s Disease
Using stem cells is not the only new approach to treating Peyronie’s disease. In recent years, scientists have developed a form of treatment known as platelet-rich plasma therapy that uses key elements from a patient’s own blood to heal damaged tissues.
Platelet-rich plasma therapy extracts blood from a patient and then separates it out into its component pieces by spinning it in a centrifuge. Then the plasma and platelets are taken from the mixture and re-injected into the patient.
The plasma is the part of the blood that consists of liquid and dissolved chemicals, while the platelets are small cell fragments that play a key role in the mechanical and chemical processes involved in clotting and repairing damaged areas in the body. When re-injected into a patient, these parts of the blood contain key growth factors that help to repair damage in combination with the healing aspects of the platelets.
Platelet-rich plasma therapy uses parts of a patient’s own blood and contains no foreign agents, and therefore does not provoke an immune response. This makes it a very safe form of treatment, while also being minimally invasive.
Studies Express Hope for PRP Therapy
Given the relative newness of this form of treatment, there is currently a lack of studies that investigate using it to treat Peyronie’s disease. That said, there have still been a number of studies with positive results.
One such study was carried out in 2017 to investigate the use of platelet-rich plasma treatments in human patients suffering from Peyronie’s disease. The treatment consisted of a series of 5 injections over a period of 2 months and analyzed the changes in curvature, size of the plaques, and erectile function.
The study showed that treatments with platelet-rich plasma were able to provide improvements to the curvature of the penis, as well as a reduction in the size of the plaques found within it. In addition, patients experienced improvements in erectile function, and almost half of those treated experienced easier sexual intercourse. That is incredible news for patients. Instead of having to undergo a risky surgery, they may be able to utilize PRP therapy.
Combination of Stem Cell Therapy and PRP
Both stem cell-based therapies and therapies using platelet-rich plasma provide a relative non-invasive path to treatment for patients suffering from Peyronie’s disease. Given that they both work with similar underlying mechanisms, there is a potential to combine the treatments for an increased chance of success.
One of the hallmarks of current treatments for Peyronie’s disease is that they may be very successful, but only in some patients. Different individuals respond differently to the treatments which means that the same therapy that mostly cures one person might have little impact on another. Therefore, by combining a number of different treatments, patients are more likely to find something that works for them. This also allows for the potential that the combined treatments augment each other and work better together than they would have done individually.
Reach out to us today to learn more about how stem cell therapy and PRP therapy can help with Peyronie’s disease. The power of regenerative medicine could spare you from pain and improve your quality of life.