Erectile dysfunction common in men with chronic kidney disease

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is prevalent in men with chronic kidney disease (CKD), reports a recent meta-analysis.

“Thus, it is mandatory to include screening and management of ED in men with CKD as a part of the assessment of their cardiovascular risk. This is particularly important in order to achieve quality of life improvements especially considering the significant advances obtained by dialysis therapy in terms of survival and expectancy of life in patients with CKD,” the researchers said.

The researchers retrieved 34 eligible studies from the databases of PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Clinicaltrials.gov, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. A total of 5,986 patients (mean age 53.9±12.3 years) in whom ED was diagnosed using the International Index of Erectile Function-5 were included. The primary study outcome was ED prevalence across CKD stages.

Pooled analysis of all included studies revealed an overall ED prevalence of 76 percent, though heterogeneity was high and significant (p<0.0001).

Stratifying by CKD stage showed that ED was most common in patients with stage III and IV CKD, with a prevalence rate of 78 percent, according to results from two studies. In comparison, pooled prevalence rates for patients undergoing haemodialysis or transplantation were 77 percent (n=28 studies) and 64 percent (n=4 studies), respectively.

Future studies are needed to identify risk factors for the development of ED in CKD, such as disease duration or other co-occurring pathological conditions, the researchers said.