[Transcutaneous neuromuscular electrical stimulation for the treatment of erectile dysfunction: A clinical...

To observe the clinical efficacy of transcutaneous neuromuscular electrical stimulation (TNES) in the treatment of ED.

According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, we included and studied 25 cases of ED treated by TNES in Northern Jiangsu People's Hospital from June 2021 to February 2022 using the self-matched pre- and post-control method. Before and after treatment, we conducted RigiScan penile hardness test under audiovisual sexual stimulation (AVSS) for all the patients and obtained their scores on the Erectile Hardness Scale (EHS), IIEF-5, Premature Ejaculation Diagnostic Tool (PEDT), Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire 7 (GAD-7).

No adverse reactions such as pain, allergy, skin burn, and subcutaneous congestion were observed in any of the patients. There were statistically significant differences after treatment in erection time, average and maximum hardness of the penile tip, mean hardness of the penile root, and circumference of the penile tip (P < 0.05), but not in the circumference and maximum hardness of the penile root during erection compared with the baseline (P > 0.05). Significant improvement was observed after treatment in the IIEF-5 score (P < 0.05), with a total effectiveness rate of 68%, as well as in the PEDT score (P < 0.05) GAD-7 anxiety score (P < 0.05), but not in the PHQ-9 depression score (P > 0.05).

TNES, as a safe and non-invasive therapy, can improve penile hardness under AVSS and the erectile function and anxiety symptoms of ED patients, and can be used as a new option for the treatment of ED.