The use of the cortisone, or any form of steroid injections for Peyronie’s disease, was most commonly used in the 1960s through the early 1980s. Theoretically steroids will reduce scar formation by inhibiting fibroblasts from making the primary components of scar, that being collagen. Unfortunately, all steroids can result in tissue atrophy, with weakening of the tissues, and do appear to result in a destruction of the planes between the bundle of nerves and blood vessels which lie over the Peyronie’s plaque. As a result, should the steroid injection therapy fail, which it does regularly, this may make surgery more complicated and comprise neurovascular function of the penis. The primary concern with steroid injection, as with many of the treatments for Peyronie’s disease, is that virtually all of the studies in the past where not controlled with a placebo arm, they were performed with a limited number of patients whose improvement was only reported subjectively without any measurements documenting reduction of deformity. Although there are physicians around the world who may still be using steroid injection, it is my opinion that this should not be used as there are better and safer alternatives such as, verapamil and interferon, which are currently available.
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