[Radiation treatment of plastic induration of the penis]

Between 1969 and 1984, a group of 54 patients with plastic induration of the penis was treated at the Medical Radiation Institute of the University of Tübingen. During the first years conventional X-ray irradiation was applied, and since 1974 patients were submitted to 3 or 5 MeV electron irradiation of a linear accelerator, until a total focal dose of 20 Gy was accumulated. 78% of these patients were between 50 and 60 years old. Sixteen patients suffered from a simultaneous Dupuytren contracture, one patient had a fibrosis of mamma virilis. The treatment results reached from satisfactory until very good in 69% of all cases. Complete regression or a considerable improvement was obtained for indurations in 59%, for deviations in 69%, and for erection algesia in 79%. Radiogenic damages can be excluded in case of a gonad exposition of 0.2 Gy. There were no permanent cutaneous lesions after a total focal dose of 20 Gy. The prognostic importance of an early treatment is underlined; late stages presenting ossifications can be treated only by surgery. For routine diagnosis of site, extent, and possible mineralization of the regions involved, soft ray phallography performed with the technique of mammography can be used.