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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Feb 4.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2016 Feb 4;2:16003. doi: 10.1038/nrdp.2016.3

Figure 1. Timeline of the understanding and treatment of erectile dysfunction.

Figure 1

As it became understood that an erection is a predominantly vasculogenic process, filling the cavernosal bodies with blood became one of the key features of different modalities of treatment of erectile dysfunction. For example, the vacuum erection device of today took form when tyre technician Geddings Osbon invented the youth equivalency device in 1960, which combines the effect of a vacuum that draws blood into the penis and the penile ring placed at the base of the penis to occlude venous return. Injectable therapies became prominent following the infamous Brindley lecture ‘Cavernosal α-blockade: a technique for treating erectile impotence’ at the American Urological Association Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, in 1983 (REF. 222).