Extracorporeal shock wave therapy in patients with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome and erectile dysfunction: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Shock wave therapy is associated with improved erectile function in chronic pelvic pain syndrome
Extracorporeal shock wave therapy in patients with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome and erectile dysfunction: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) frequently coexists with erectile dysfunction (erectile dysfunction) and is associated with substantial impairment in quality of life (quality of life).
To assess the efficacy and safety of extracorporeal shock wave therapy for improving erectile function and CP/CPPS-related symptoms in men with CP/CPPS and concomitant erectile dysfunction.
A systematic search was performed up to December 2025 across eight electronic sources (PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, and SinoMed) to identify randomized controlled trials evaluating extracorporeal shock wave therapy in men with CP/CPPS and comorbid erectile dysfunction.
shock wave therapy improved erectile function versus control
The pooled effect on erectile function was numerically larger in sham-controlled trials than in active-comparator studies, although the between-subgroup difference was not statistically significant.
Subgroup analyzes were exploratory and showed no significant between-subgroup differences.
GRADE certainty was low across efficacy outcomes and high for safety outcomes.
Across randomized trials, extracorporeal shock wave therapy was associated with improvements in erectile function and CP/CPPS-related symptoms in men with CP/CPPS and concomitant erectile dysfunction.
Sham-controlled trials may provide more internally valid estimates for erectile function outcomes than active-comparator studies.
Improvements in erectile function were generally accompanied by favorable changes in pain, urinary symptoms, and quality of life.