[Vascular erectile dysfunction]

Vascular etiology is present in up to 60% of the patients with erectile dysfunction (ED). Both small vessel disease, such as that in diabetes mellitus, and arteriosclerosis of bigger size arteries, as in hypertension, cause arterial insufficiency and erectile dysfunction. Tobacco smoking alters the arterial hemodynamics in the penis, causing erectile dysfunction in a high percentage of advanced age smokers: pelvic arteries fibrosis and stenosis accelerates the existing arteriosclerosis. Venous occlusive dysfunction may be due to the decrease of corpora cavernosa compliance or tunica albuginea inherent anomalies. Vascular endothelial growth factor may play a role in the modulation of vascularization of the normal penile architecture. Various events, all of them important, may cause erectile dysfunction. Moreover, no cause can participate independently. A cascade of situations (including psychological factors as well as organic) may lead to erectile dysfunction. A continuous understanding of organic causes of erectile dysfunction will allow physicians to discover treatments for their correction, as well as to give confidence to the patient.