Table 1. Phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors (PDE5Is) plus vacuum erection device (VED).
| Author (year) | Study design | No. of patients | Follow-up | Evaluation questionnaire | Results | Evidence level | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PDE5I | VED | Combination | |||||||
| Chen et al. (2004)7 | Cohort | 41 | 2 months | IIEF | Erectile function | 15.7±2.3 | 17.1±1.9 | 27.4±1.4* | IIb |
| Intercourse satisfaction | 7.8±2.3 | 8.1±1.7 | 11.5±1.4* | ||||||
| Orgasmic function | 5.2±2.7 | 5.6±2.5 | 6.2±1.9* | ||||||
| Sexual desire | 6.6±1.7 | 6.6±1.5 | 7.5±0.8* | ||||||
| Overall satisfaction | 5.6±1.5 | 5.7±1.1 | 8.8±1.0* | ||||||
| Raina et al. (2005)8 | Cohort | 31 | 4.5 months, with at least five attempts | IIEF | Successful penetration rate (%) | 52 | 70 | IV | |
| VAS | Patient rigidity score (0–100) | 55 | 76 | ||||||
| Partner rigidity score (0–100) | 59 | 82 | |||||||
| Spousal satisfaction (%) | 55 | 64 | |||||||
| Total IIEF-5 score | 14.5±5.7 | 18.5±8.2 | |||||||
| Return of nocturnal erections (%) | 0 | 29 (7/24) | |||||||
| Comments: | |||||||||
| 77% (24/31) of patients reported improvement in penile rigidity and sexual satisfaction. | |||||||||
| Canguven et al. (2009)9 | Case series | 69 | 4 weeks | IIEF | 9.0±5.7 | 17.6±7.2* | IV | ||
| SEP | |||||||||
| GPAS | Comments: | ||||||||
| With the combination therapy, 79% (27/34), 70% (50/35) and 74% (31/42) of patients responded ”yes„ to SEP-2 and SEP-3 and improvement to GPAS, respectively. | |||||||||
Abbreviations: GPAS, global patient and assessment scale; IIEF, international index of erectile function; SEP, sexual encounter profile; VAS, visual analog scale to gauge rigidity.
*P<0.001, compared with each monotherapy.