Impotence drug being used for stroke survivors

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Studies on the application of sildenafil for stroke survivors will begin after promising results in animals.
Sildenafil is well known as a treatment for erectile dysfunction. But it may also have other applications. A team at Henry Ford Hospital in the USA are looking at the drug as a way of helping patients recover from a stroke.

They have done research in animals that suggests that sildenafil may be able to grow new brain cells and so repair stroke damage. Compassionate use in two patients after stroke has been promising. One woman with 'locked in' syndrome could only move her eyes and can now, after treatment, smile, eat, move all four limbs and stand with assistance. The hospital will now enrol 84 patients who have suffered a stroke in the last 72 hours to see if the benefits of sildenafil hold up.

Source
Henry Ford Hospital 17th February 2005

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