Post Date April, 15 2023
Sildenafil is considered to be the most effective oral drug for the treatment of impotence, with a total clinical effective rate of 77%. Generally speaking, it is safe and reliable in clinical application. Common adverse reactions include headache, flushing, and indigestion. A few patients have nasal congestion, visual abnormalities, diarrhea, blood pressure drop, and rash, but most of them are mild to moderate, and they are transient. There have been no reports of abnormal erections.
Examples of evidence
In 1998, a safety experimental study involving more than 4000 patients showed that 2.5% and 2.3% of patients in the sildenafil treatment group and placebo control group stopped taking the drug due to adverse reactions, respectively. The incidence of cardiovascular adverse reactions was 3% and 3.5%, of which 80% were mild, and only 0.9% stopped taking the drug due to this. There was no significant difference in the incidence of severe adverse reactions such as myocardial infarction and angina between the two groups, indicating that sildenafil is safe and easy to tolerate.
Causes of adverse reactions
It has been reported that sildenafil can change vision, with 3% to 6% of patients suffering from color blindness and visual blurring after taking sildenafil. This is the result of the effect of sildenafil on phosphodiesterase-1 distributed in the retina. Although visual impairments are transient and generally disappear immediately after drug withdrawal, they should be used with caution for pilots and those who rely on fluorescent screens for work at night.
The occurrence of adverse reactions is related to the distribution of phosphodiesterase-5, which is found in many tissues of the human body, such as vascular smooth muscle, bronchi, esophagus, anal sphincter, urethra, prostate, and even platelets. Therefore, patients with coagulation disorders and active ulcers should also be cautious in using.
