Helal Syed, MD

Helal Syed, MD, a urology resident at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, discusses investigating the use of pentoxifylline versus PDE-5 inhibitors (PDE-5i) in a small case-control study in patients undergoing robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP). He notes the high cost of PDE-5i, which accounted for nearly $82 million of healthcare-related spending in 2015, and how medications such as pentoxifylline could help improve postoperative ED while reducing costs. Finally, Dr. Syed discusses the results of a 17 patient case-control study using pentoxifylline and PDE-5i, which demonstrated no difference in IIEF scores, BMI, or stretched penile length between the treatment groups.