Device corporation launches "social networking" site for Peyronie's Disease -- and their "biodesign repair graft".

Cook Medical is a part of the Cook Group, an oddly diverse multinational (emphases mine):

Since 1963, Cook Group companies have been among the leaders in developing healthcare devices that have improved lives around the world. COOK remains at the forefront of medical research and worldwide sales of products for endovascular therapy, critical care medicine, general surgery, diagnostic and interventional procedures, bioengineered tissue replacement and regeneration, gastroenterology and endoscopy procedures, urology, and obstetrics and gynecology.

Our COOK corporate family also includes companies that manufacture specialized industrial parts and offer commercial services in the travel, real-estate development and management, and retail fields.

COOK is a global company with a global focus - and a global future.

Real estate services and endovascular devices? Now that's weird. I suspect they're privately held, which probably explains their idiosyncratic portfolio.

The medical device company, among other things, sells the Surgisis Biodesign Peyronie's Repair Graft

... The Surgisis Biodesign Peyronie's Repair Graft can help restore a patient's lifestyle and confidence. Surgisis Biodesign provides strength and flexibility for reinforcement and correction of penile curvature. The graft signals the body's surrounding cells to grow across the scaffold, remodeling into functional tissue. Surgisis Biodesign is easy to hydrate and suture, minimizes scar tissue formation, and is resistant to infection....

The Surgisis line appeared on "The History Channel" a few months ago, which leads to some cynical speculation on how that channel is funded. I couldn't find any medical articles referencing this product, a scholar.google.com search had one hit.

Which brings me to Peyronie's - Getting Information and Help. This is billed by Cook Medical as a "social networking site" (from an email I was sent):

... Cook Medical is launching MensHealthPD.com, and leveraging social networking capabilities to create a safe and interactive destination for physicians, patients and their partners to learn about symptoms and treatments, discuss and share thoughts and opinions and have access to the latest information around Peyronie’s disease.  Physicians can also engage in a secure, physicians-only Q&A forum to foster knowledge exchange...

Unsurprisingly their therapy reference includes this blurb:

... Plaque Incision or Excision and Grafting: This procedure removes tissue on the inside of the curve and replaces it with a graft to allow the penis to straighten. The graft can either be tissue from the patient or a biological "off-the-shelf" material such as Cook Medical's Surgisis^® Biodesign™ Peyronie's Repair Graft or a cadaveric pericardial graft...

Well.

Ok, so it's a time honored practice in the pharma industry to create "patient friendly" web sites which, oddly enough, slip in some marketing on the side. Even so, this one feels a bit a bit edgy to me. There are NO references to any published research about their "Surgisis Biodesign" graft material, and it's obviously the entire reason the site exists.

If you do visit this site, please remember why it exists.

Peyronie's Disease Society public forum

Peyronie's is a relatively common, though generally concealed, disorder. It may affect as many as 1/100 men, though I suspect the "significant impact" number is closer to 1/300 or so.

For such a relatively common and rather significant (to us) disorder, there's not much on the net -- lots of brief introductions, very little discussion, quite a few scams.

There's one notable exception: the Peyronie's Disease Society - Forum, which is the communication center for the Peyronie's Disease Society. The PDS is so pure it doesn't even seem to have advertising:

... We are non-profit. We have no commercial interests, and are funded solely from the personal finances of our management team. Our membership base actively contributes to information, education, and support, through our Peyronies Disease Forum...

I've browsed the forums, and, given my background, it's not surprising that I'm familiar with most of the science and discussion topics. There's a lot of enthusiasm for topics I'm not interested in (various vitamins, DHEA, etc), but there's also discussion of surgical interventions and results. That kind of data is very hard to find.

I'll be browsing the forums on a semi-regular basis, looking for topics that suggest some literature research.