Peyronie's disease treatment
Peyronie’s treatment? The PETNIXON Procedure is a non-surgical treatment. It can be used in the active and stable phases of the disease. There are no restrictions on the angle or hardness of the plaque(s).
How does non-surgical Peyronie's treatment work?
The PETNIXON Procedure consists of ultrasound-guided Needling, PRP 6.0, Pumping, PUBLOREM and a Personalised Treatment Plan.
During the first treatment session, our urologists will assess your Peyronie’s disease using ultrasound and determine the hardness of the plaque(s).
What is Peyronie's disease?
Peyronie’s disease refers to a benign abnormality of the penis during erection. The abnormality in the penis is caused by hardening of connective tissue strands, resulting in the formation of one to three ‘plaques’ in the penis. Peyronie’s disease is often accompanied by erectile dysfunction. The disease has an activeeve en een stabiele fase.
Active phase
The disease is characterised by an active phase (usually 12 months) consisting of curvature with shortening of the penis and usually painful erections. In the active phase, we do not use needling, but opt for PRP 6.0 injections and pumping.
Stable phase
The active phase is followed by the stable phase (chronic phase), during which the pain usually diminishes or disappears and the curvature stabilises. An important fact is that 9 months after the onset of symptoms, the curvature increased by 10 degrees in 21% of patients. In 12% of patients, the curvature decreased slightly. Stabilisation occurs more quickly in older men than in younger men.
In this phase, we opt for needling, PRP 6.0 injections and pumping. The plaques are still ‘soft’ at the beginning, which means we see results more quickly.
Calcification and ossification
If you do not treat your Peyronie’s disease, the plaques will calcify or ossify over time. This makes them (very) hard. At this stage, we opt for needling, PRP 6.0 and pumping. The first goal is to soften the plaques.
What is the aim of Peyronie's treatment?
The Peyronie’s treatment offered by ACREN Clinics focuses on reducing the angle of curvature, pain relief, improving the quality of sexual experience and addressing erectile dysfunction.
Examination to your Peyronie's treatment?
Prior to treatment, you will have an appointment with the treating urologist. Based on your photographic material, ultrasound and physical examination, they will determine whether it is a “genuine” Peyronie’s disease. A curvature may also have another cause.
Important
Do you think you have the symptoms of Peyronie’s disease? Then don’t wait too long before taking action. It is important that an experienced urologist examines you as soon as possible to determine whether you have Peyronie’s disease.
By waiting too long without taking action, the plaques become increasingly hard due to calcification and the angle of curvature may increase, resulting in more treatment sessions being required or the results of the treatment being more limited. We can only really observe the hardness during treatment.
Different name, same treatment
Other names are also used for Peyronie’s disease, which can sometimes cause confusion. For example, it is sometimes referred to as “Induratio Penis Plastica”, abbreviated to IPP, but also as penile fibrosis. Whichever name is used, at ACREN Clinics you will receive our non-surgical Peyronie’s treatment.
Example result
An example of an extremely hardened Peyronie’s disease that has been restored to a livable state using the PETNIXON Procedure in a NON-surgical manner. The password to view the page is 987654321 (in reverse order) Click here>>
The Peyronie's treatment
The Peyronie treatment is carried out in collaboration with you, whereby you ensure the correct blood quality and follow the guidelines after each treatment session.
Local anaesthetic
On the day of treatment, pre-anaesthetic cream will be applied to your entire penis. Once the pre-anaesthetic has taken effect, the doctor will administer additional anaesthetic. Once your penis is completely numb, your Peyronie’s treatment will begin.
What does Peyronie's treatment cost?
- PUBLOREM €237 (order and pay online)
- Then every 4 to 6 weeks a treatment session (minimum of 5) at €647 (payment on site)
After that, you return annually for a maintenance treatment. The price is €647 for the maintenance treatment.
Pump
If you have your own penis pump, you can use it. If you do not have one, you will find a link to the webshop of the medical device distributor in your Personal Treatment Plan. The price of the pump is approximately €180 (excluding shipping costs).
Who performs Peyronie's disease treatment?
The treatment is carried out by our empathetic, experienced urologists.
What is needling?
Met een naald maakt de arts fracture lines in the plaque(s), creating hinge lines and breaking the plaque(s) into small, flexible pieces.
Needling helps to reduce the angle of Peyronie’s disease and minimise pain in the erect penis.
What is PRP?
Your blood consists of approximately 55% plasma, approximately 44% red blood cells, less than 1% white blood cells and 0.2% platelets. Centrifuging your blood separates the plasma, platelets (together = PRP) and white blood cells are separated from the red blood cells. Adding white blood cells to PRP creates LR-PRP.
Plasma consists of 91.5% water and the remaining 8.5% consists of nutrients, vitamins, hormones, electrolytes and many blood proteins. The water in plasma ensures that it is liquid and can be injected.
Platelets are small disc-shaped cells formed in the bone marrow that contain granules with over 300 bioactive substances and growth factors.
You have between 150,000,000,000 and 400,000,000,000 platelets per litre in your blood, unless you have thrombocytopenia. They have no nucleus and cannot multiply. The lifespan of a platelet is 5 to 9 days. Platelets play a key role in building new connective tissue and restoring blood supply.
What is pumping?
Pumping refers to the use of a medical vacuum pump to prevent the plaque(s) from clumping together after treatment and to enhance the effect of the PRP.
Influencing results
You have a significant influence on the quality of your blood when it is drawn. After the injection, you have a significant influence on the effectiveness of your Peyronie’s treatment with PRP. We explain how you can do this in your Personal Treatment Plan.
Personal Treatment Plan
In the Personal Treatment section, we indicate when you need to do what and on what date. This is related to the treatment sessions.
Contents Personal Treatment Plan
The plan starts four weeks before your first injection and runs until six weeks after the third injection. It covers the following points, among others:
- Cortisone
- Anti-inflammatory drugs
- Antibiotica
- Blood thinners
- Cholesterol
- Heat
- Inspanning
- Alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, and drugs
- Pump instructions for use
An additional effect of PRP is an increase in the volume and sensitivity of the penis.
Specifically, you can observe change from: 6 weeks after the first treatment session to 6 months after the last session.
Blood thinners
Peyronie’s treatment is also possible if you are taking blood thinners. The condition is that your INR (blood clotting value) on the day of treatment is between 1 and 2.
Your Peyronie's treatment
Before
- You clicked on the ‘MAKE AN APPOINTMENT’ button, filled in the application form, and pressed send. The request will be received by our service desk.
- The medical assistant who will be assisting you will call you to schedule an appointment with the urologist.
- After the consultation with the urologist, the medical assistant will call you again to schedule the dates for five treatment sessions. Once the five treatment dates and times have been set, the medical assistant will send you an email with the appointment confirmation, the address of the private clinic, the name of the doctor, the link to your Personal Treatment Plan, and your password. The medical assistant will ask you to reply to the email once you have received it, so that you can start preparing for your appointment.
Treatment session
- The nurse will welcome you and take you to the treatment room. Here, you may lie down on the treatment table after removing your underwear.
- The nurse will take two tubes of blood and place them in the centrifuge.
- The nurse will then apply anaesthetic cream to your entire penis. This will give you a warm feeling.
- After 5 minutes, the centrifuge is ready and you will feel the anaesthetic taking effect.
- The nurse will prepare your PRP for injection.
- In the meantime, the doctor will give you two anaesthetic injections at the base of your penis, completely numbing the area. The more you relax, the less you will feel the anaesthetic.
- Once the anaesthetic takes effect, the doctor will begin the needling and then gently inject the PRP.
- After that, you will be ready to get dressed.
- The treatment session lasts 30-40 minutes.
Afterwards
- You follow the instructions you have received via your Personal Treatment Plan.
Follow-up
- Three months after your last treatment session, your medical assistant will contact you to discuss your progress. The next contact moment will be agreed in consultation with you.
Making love between treatment sessions is certainly possible if you feel that it is okay.
Payment
You can pay for your Peyronie’s treatment on site by debit card (Maestro) or cash.
Frequently asked questions about Peyronie's disease
At the service desk and during consultations, we receive various questions about Peyronie’s disease and possible treatments. We have answered the most frequently asked questions for you below:
Why is the Peyronie's disease treatment offered by ACREN Clinics so successful?
The treatment is non-surgical, so it has no effect on the length or shape of the penis. The plaque(s) formed are transformed from a rigid whole into mobile pieces and the tissue in and around the erectile tissue is rejuvenated. The treatment is only performed by highly experienced urologists.
Does Peyronie's treatment always work?
The answer is ‘yes’. However, it is not a quick fix, and the first noticeable improvements depend on the angle, hardness of the plaque(s) and how long you have had them. If we find that there is no improvement after three treatments, the treatment will be discontinued in consultation with you. If you would like us to continue working on improving sensation or volume, we can proceed with the planned treatment sessions.
Will my penis be completely straight after the treatment?
The initial focus is on straightening the penis functionally, so that you can have sex again or improve your sex life. How straight your penis becomes depends on the angle at the start of treatment. If you want a completely straight penis, more treatment sessions may be necessary.
Will my penis become shorter as a result of the treatment?
The answer is ‘NO’. Your penis will not become shorter as a result of treatment at ACREN Clinics.
Do you utilise ESWT in Peyronie's disease treatment?
ESWT treatment has a limited effect and we do NOT use it as a primary method for treating Peyronie’s disease. It can provide pain relief during the active phase. We sometimes offer ESWT as an additional service during treatment sessions, but it will not reduce the curvature, unlike needling and PRP 6.0.
What can be done about Peyronie's disease?
At present, there are no medications that can cure Peyronie’s disease. Surgery can straighten your penis, but it has other adverse effects. If you wish to have surgery, this can be done once the disease has stabilised. At ACREN Clinics, we opt for a combination of needling, PRP 6.0, a personalised treatment plan and pumping. We cannot cure the disease. The treatment focuses on addressing the discomfort caused by Peyronie’s disease.
Do you use Xiapex?
Xiapex is no longer available in Europe and was mainly used to treat non-calcified Peyronie’s disease. We are currently investigating an alternative to Xiapex in combination with PRP 6.0. We are regularly asked if we will inject Xiapex that a patient has purchased abroad for around £85.00 per injection. Although we are familiar with the Xiapex injection schedules, we do not do this because these products are not FDA approved. Our doctors remain responsible for the injections and do not want to risk suspension.
What does Peyronie's disease look like?
With Peyronie’s disease, your penis curves when you get an erection. A slight curve, which many men experience, is normal. Sometimes the curve causes pain when your penis is erect. The curvature is not necessarily upward. You may feel a hardening when your penis is flaccid. It is advisable to have Peyronie’s disease diagnosed by an experienced urologist.
Is Peyronie's disease dangerous?
The hard spot(s) that are plaque(s) in your penis are not dangerous. This is called plaque or plaques if there are multiple hard spots.
How many people have Peyronie's disease?
It is a rough estimate that 1 in 15 men, usually over the age of 40, will experience Peyronie’s disease.
What can be mistaken for Peyronie's disease?
Peyronie’s disease is sometimes confused with congenital curvature or a penile fracture. In some cases, it may be caused by penile cancer, scleroderma (a form of inflammation or hardening of connective tissue) or another form of fibrosis (connective tissue formation). It is important to have Peyronie’s disease diagnosed by an experienced urologist.
Can Peyronie's disease disappear?
The complete disappearance of Peyronie’s disease has not yet been observed. A slight improvement may occur after the disease has stabilised. The pain often decreases at this point. This occurs approximately one year after the first symptoms appear.
Can you live with Peyronie's disease?
If you are sexually active and the curvature makes penetration impossible or painful, you may want to consider treatment for your Peyronie’s disease. If you are not in pain and it does not bother you, you can live with Peyronie’s disease without starting treatment.
Can you have sex with Peyronie's disease?
Whether this is painful depends on the Peyronie’s disease and the stage of the disease. The angle of the curvature can make penetration difficult or even impossible. If you, as a man, do not experience any pain, there is no reason not to have sex.
Private clinics
You will receive your Peyronie’s disease treatment at one of our specialised private clinics in the Antwerp region. Our planning methods ensure that there are no long waiting times.
Locations
The private clinics are located outside the centre of Antwerp. This means you won’t have to deal with traffic lights and traffic jams in the city. You also have the option of free parking.
Background information on Peyronie's disease
We regularly receive questions about Peyronie’s disease. For many people, it is often after the age of 40 that they first hear about it. We sometimes come across interesting articles in our urological literature. We have summarised all the articles and try to keep this information up to date.
The clinical picture
Peyronie’s disease is caused by changes in the tough connective tissue capsule (tunica albuginea) surrounding the erectile tissue in the penis (corpora cavernosa). It is believed that genetic factors increase a person’s likelihood of developing Peyronie’s disease.
Demographic studies indicate that the disease occurs in 3% to 9% of men over the age of 50. Globally, there has been an increase in the number of patients with Peyronie’s disease.
History
Francois Gigot de la Peyronie (1678 – 1747), Louis XIV’s first surgeon, was the first to describe the symptoms of ‘induratio penis plastica (IPP)’. Peyronie’s disease had previously been described as an ‘obstacle to marital happiness’ and had been discussed by other scholars since the thirteenth century.
In Peyronie’s time, it was thought to be a sexually transmitted disease. In 1828, George McClellan removed a plaque for the first time. In 1965, the Nesbit procedure was published.
How does the disease affect the body?
Peyronie’s disease leads to fibrotic areas (excessive scar tissue) in the connective tissue capsule surrounding the corpora cavernosa. The most widely accepted theory is that the process is triggered by mechanical trauma. From practical experience, we know that patients do not always consciously experience this.
Stress
The illness can cause a great deal of stress, which can lead to tension in a relationship. Physical pain can occur in both the patient and their partner during sexual intercourse, if this is even possible.
At ACREN Clinics, we are aware of the psychological effect, which is why it is important to make it clear in advance that the solution we offer takes time and that you yourself also make a major contribution to its success by following the guidelines in your Personal Treatment Plan.
Treatment of Peyronie's disease (non-surgical)
There are various treatment methods using CCH or surgery, some more successful than others. At ACREN Clinics, we opt for non-surgical treatment (PETNIXON Procedure), as this does not affect the shape and size of the penis.
If you do not achieve satisfactory results due to extreme calcification or ossification of the plaque(s), you can always opt for surgery.
Treatment of Peyronie's disease (surgical)
The Nesbit procedure can be used if the angle of curvature is >60° and there is no narrowing at the plaque. In this procedure, sutures are placed on the opposite side of the angle to straighten the curvature, thereby reducing the angle of curvature. Please note that the penis will become a few centimetres shorter. We estimate that for every 20°, the penis will become 1 cm shorter.
It is possible that with strong erections, the suture may come loose or break. Chronic irritation or pain may also occur due to the presence of the suture.
Grafting is another option, whereby a plaque incision (cutting into the plaque, usually lengthwise) surgical method can be chosen, in which case the hole that is created is usually filled with synthetic material.
During grafting, the surgeon may also opt for plaque excision. This involves completely removing the plaque, creating a hole that is filled with a graft. The graft is made from autologous or synthetic material. The technique is called the Egydio technique or Lue technique, which carries a higher risk of erectile dysfunction.
A penile prosthesis can also be fitted in cases of Peyronie’s disease and severe erectile dysfunction. The disadvantage is that natural erections are no longer possible, with the risk of infections and mechanical failure.
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