Professor Run Wang: can erectile dysfunction be cured?

He served as a panelist for the International Consultation for Sexual Medicine in 2009 and 2015. Prof. Wang has authored 138 articles and chapters in peer-reviewed journals and books. He served as a co-editor, guest editor, associate editor, editorial member and reviewer for many medical and research journals. Prof. Wang is the President-elect for the Sexual Medicine Society of North America. Prof. Wang was invited to give a lecture on " ED after radical prostatectomy: mile stones in development of rehabilitation strategy " during the 15 th biennial meeting of the Asia-Pacific Society for Sexual Medicine and The Genitourinary Medical Symposium (APSSM2015 and GUMS2015) in Beijing. We were honored to invite Prof. Wang for an interview to give his brilliant perspectives on erectile dysfunction. TAU: Could you briefly introduce the current status of erectile dysfunction in USA? Prof. Wang: Erectile dysfunction has changed a lot in the last 20-30 years. Particularly in 1998 when Viagra was put on the market, the same year that the Nobel Prize was awarded to three scientists who discovered that nitric oxide could be used to mediate the function of the cardiovascular system including penile erection. Before the Viagra era, many people believed erectile dysfunction was a psychological problem. Since the discovery of nitric oxide and introduction of Viagra into the market, many people have changed their perceptions completely. Even though we can not one hundred percent rule out the psychological factor contributing to erectile dysfunction, we now know that the majority of erectile dysfunction is caused by organic etiology such as diabetes and hypertension. TAU: What are the current treatments for erectile dysfunction? When treating erectile dysfunction, how is the therapy method selected? Is there any basic principle? Prof. Wang: Erectile dysfunction management was completely changed by Prof. Tom F. Lue's proposal. Previously, whenever we had patients with erectile dysfunction, we tried everything to identify the possible etiology and then to treat it. This kind of treatment really wastes a lot of resources, because many studies don't really change the management. So Prof. Lue proposed the concept of goal-oriented therapy to simply treat the erectile dysfunction. Basically, disregard what has happened and disregard the etiology of erectile dysfunction. Almost everyone is offered the medication first as the first therapy since the introduction of Viagra into the market. So many patients come to our clinic, we don't have to waste time or money on expensive …