Tsertsvadze A, Fink HA, Yazdi F, MacDonald R, Bella AJ, Ansari MT, Garritty C, Soares-Weiser K, Daniel R, Sampson M, Fox S, Moher D, Wilt T
CRD summary
This generally well-conducted review concluded that oral PDE-5 inhibitors improved erectile function and had similar efficacy and safety profiles; the efficacy and value of hormone treatments remained uncertain. Despite some limitations,the review included a large number of studies and the direction of effect seemed to be consistent across studies and analyses. The conclusions are likely to be reliable.
Authors’ objectives
To evaluate the efficacy and harms of oral phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE-5) inhibitors and hormonal treatments for erectile dysfunction, and assess the effect of measuring serum hormone levels on treatment outcomes for erectile dysfunction.
Searching
MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PsycINFO, AMED, and SCOPUS were searched for English-language studies; dates of the searches spanned 1966 to April 2009. Search terms were reported. Reference lists of retrieved articles were scanned. Continue reading

