Author:
Rivero Belenchón Inés,Gómez Rivas Juan,Medina López Rafael Antonio,Checcucci Enrico,Taratkin Mark,Puliatti Stefano,Kowalewski Karl-Friedrich,Cacciamani Giovanni,Congregado Ruíz Carmen Belén,Castro Cristina,Enikeev Dmitry,Abad-Lopez Pablo,Panetsos Fivos,Moreno-Sierra Jesús
Abstract
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer amongst men, and one of its treatments in the localized stage is radical prostatectomy (RP). This technique achieves a high success rate regarding oncological results, but one of its main drawbacks are sexual disorders, especially erectile dysfunction, ranging from 14-90% of the cases. Therefore, surgery advancements in the last decade have been focused on minimizing the impact on patient’s functioning. Now is time for a step forward in the recovery of functional outcomes after RP. Bioengineering solutions such as stem-cell therapy and tissue engineering hold great opportunities for the treatment of all tissues and organs dysfunctions, which may help in neuroprotection and neuro-regeneration. Specifically, the use of Dehydrated human amnion/chorion membrane (dHACM) allografts and chitosan membranes (ChiMe) aims at reconstructing damaged neurovascular plexuses of the urogenital system to support erectile function recovery. Some research is being done on this topic, and promising results are emerging.