Levitra

What is Levitra?

Levitra®(Vardenafil) is a treatment option that is available for men affected by the condition erectile dysfunction (ED), commonly known as Impotence. Manufactured by Bayer Pharmacueticals, Levitra has been available with a prescription in the UK since 2003. Levitra comes in doses of 5mg, 10mg and 20mg, so it is possible to optimise treatment to each individual patient much better with Levitra than with any other impotence treatment, allowing side effects to be better managed and reduced should they occur whilst using this medication. Another benefit of this medication is the amount of time that Levitra can remain active for within patients, with clinical studies showing that this can be as long as 12 hours in some men, with a single dose.

The treatment itself is very similar to the likes of other erectile dysfunction treatments, such as Viagra and Cialis, working in a similar way by inhibiting certain enzymes from acting on the body which are designed to return an erection back to its flaccid state. By inhibiting these enzymes, Levitra is able to both induce and sustain a longer lasting and harder erection in patients within 30-60 minutes after dose.

How does Levitra work?

When a man is sexually aroused, the arteries in the penis relax and widen, allowing more blood to flow. While the arteries expand, the veins that normally carry blood away from the penis become compressed, restricting blood flow, preventing blood from leaving the penis. With more blood flowing in than flowing out, the penis enlarges, resulting in an erection. Levitra acts in the same way as Viagra and Cialis, by blocking an enzyme called Phosphodiesterase Type 5, or PDE-5. This enzyme causes the smooth tissue in the penis to relax, which allows more blood to enter, in a similar way to Viagra. However, Levitra comes in lower doses and has been proven to last a longer with a single dose than Viagra.

How effective is Levitra?

During the clinical trial stages of this medication, this consisted of more than 50 separate trials, to prove both the effectiveness and safety of the medication before it could be approved for treating erectile dysfunction amongst men. Over these trials a total of 4,400 men who suffer from impotence participated, the results of these studies revealed a clinically meaningful and statistically significant result compared with a placebo. A further 2,431 patients underwent four independently conducted trials for Levitra in the US, with two of these being conducted in the general population and two in special groups in which the condition is more prevelant, such as patients with diabetes or those who have had a prostatectomy. The results for all of these additional trials were just as significant as those conducted earlier, demonstrating an 85% success rate for Levitra amongst the male population. Levitra is an effective and well-tolerated treatment for ED that has a period of responsiveness of up to 12 hours in patients 65 years or older, and 9 and a half hours in younger participants.