• Submitted by: Luis Manuel Mazorra
• Health and Medicine
• 02 / 01 / 2012

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Erectile dysfunction is common in men after a certain age worldwide. As in the rest of the world in Cuba penile prosthesis is placed to counter the disease. In fact, there are more than 1000 Cubans who have received treatment.

More than 1,000 Cubans use penile prosthesis placed for free in health centers in their country, but many men with erection problems hide their difficulty or know the solution, an expert said Tuesday.

These are called prostheses "malleable, and consist of a rigid material, silicone, with a silver wire or steel inside," said Dr. Ramiro Fraga, director of the Cuban Society of Urology, one of the pioneers of these implants in Cuba, which began in 2005.

According to Fraga, the malleable are more durable and economical than known as hydraulic prosthesis. A treatment with the latter costs in the world between 15,000 and 20,000 dollars as the malleable are around 10,000 or 11,000 dollars.

For Cubans, the service is free, as the whole health system, but for foreigners who come to Cuba through tourism centers of health, the cost is about $ 5,000, said in an interview with specialist digital Cubasí site.

Asked about the prevalence of erectile dysfunction among Cubans, Fraga said that "there are few studies about it, we did one in a health area of ​​the municipality Plaza (Havana), and we found that approximately 47% of men aged between 40 and 70 years with erectile dysfunction. "

"Global statistics show that half of men have this condition. Also studies by the Latin American Society for Sexual Medicine and evidenced. Cuba is no exception in that sense, what happens is that a query comes only about 10 %. Many men shut up the problem and do not say by machismo "he said.

He said these malleable prostheses have a 90% efficiency on the island.

He said that most patients receiving these implants have organic problems, conditioned by mismanaged risk factors as smoking, alcohol, physical inactivity, obesity, poorly controlled diabetes, or chronic diseases such as hypertension, ischemic heart disease and others.

"Therefore, the penile prostheses is five, 10% of all patients with severe erectile dysfunction refractory to other treatments.'s The last thing done, is a third-line therapy," he said.