Establishing a standardized evaluation of the man with Peyronie's disease

The goal of this article is to encourage development of a standardized approach to the evaluation of the man with Peyronie's disease. An additional aim is to identify those subjective and objective measures of change occurring as a result of treatment which would allow uniform reporting of treatment outcome. Systematic review of current clinical parameters used in assessing the man with Peyronie's disease including demographic data, physical findings, objective measures of penile deformity and erectile function as well as questionnaires employed to gain more reliable subjective data. As there is no accepted standard approach or previously published analysis of existing approaches, a survey of 68 recently published articles is included to query current outcome reporting on Peyronie's disease therapy. Results were as follows. An algorithm is suggested as an initial format for evaluation and outcome analysis. The pros and cons of subjective and objective measures of penile deformity is presented and a standardized questionnaire and penile duplex ultrasound report form is included for current use. The literature survey revealed the broad unscientific approach to outcome reporting making assessment of treatment quite difficult. In conclusion, it is clear that it is time to establish a standardized and globally acceptable evaluation and outcome reporting algorithm. There is interest to develop and validate a specific Peyronie's disease index questionnaire. In the meantime, this article presents specific recommendations to obtaining meaningful objective measures and methods to report them.