Medicated Urethral System for erection (MUSE)




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Quest / Medical Journal
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--

New system may improve impotence treatment

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--

Aug. 09, 1995

A new treatment for impotence has been successful in more
than 70 percent
of men tested -- and does not require shots, surgery or
pumps.

Instead, it uses a device called the Medicated Urethral
System for
Erection (MUSE) -- a small plunger, about one-eighth-inch
diameter at the
tip, that
is briefly inserted into the urethral opening, where it
releases a
pellet
of erection-inducing medication that is absorbed into the
mucous
membranes.

Typically men with erectile dysfunction self-inject the penis
with
muscle-relaxing drugs, which dilate the blood vessels. That
method,
however, sometimes results in a prolonged and painful
erection,
impotency experts say.

"The new system is a real breakthrough," said Dr.
Culley Carson III, a
urologist at the University of North Carolina School of
Medicine in
Chapel Hill. "It's going to improve the ability of men
to use medication
to
restore their erections in a way that we haven't been able to
accomplish
before."

In most cases, erectile dysfunction is thought to be caused
by physical
problems like diabetes, excess alcohol consumption, smoking,
multiple
sclerosis or the side effects from prescription drugs.

In a study of 234 men who had not achieved an erection for an
average of
four years, 76 percent of the men achieved an erection after
the MUSE
treatment. Less than 3 percent of men who were treated with a
placebo
experienced the same effect.

Researchers say injecting erection-producing drugs is
generally more
effective, but that the MUSE treatment will probably prove
more
attractive
to many men.

"Given the choice, most people would use a little pellet
at the end of
the urethra rather than injecting medicine," said Robert
Krane of the
University of Southern California School of Medicine.

The device, manufactured by Vivus Inc. in Menlo Park, Calif.,
is expected
to be on the market by 1997.

Compiled from staff and wire reports.
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-- Copyright 1995 San Diego Union-Tribune
e have been unable to find an address for the
above newspaper but acknowledge a debt to them.

November 13, 1996
20:12 +0000

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