Ronald Virag

Ebook : *Erection, the user's guide (Editions Clément) May 2013

When the American pharmaceutic company Pfizer realized that a molecule tested against heart failure had positive effects on erection, Ronald Virag was immediately consulted for a first assessment, which launched research on the topic. Afterward, with a Norwegian colleague, he led the first European preliminary study of medicine. In 1999, he was part of the task force appointed by the French Ministry of Health. He was also consulted that same year by the National Ethics Advisory Council.

In 1985, the American Urology Association presented him the John Lattimer prize (a unique fact for a doctor nonspecialized in urology and non-American), awarding a discovery that changed the course of the specialty. The association then made his discovery of the intracavernous injection figure one of the most important discoveries of the century in the urology and andrology fields. In 1997, he was honored by the European Society for Sexual Medicine for the entirety of his works. Brazilian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Greek medical societies honored him as well. He was elected associate member, then a permanent member of the French National Surgery Academy (2012).

The papavérine intracavernous injection was a turning point in the history of the treatment of erectile dysfunction. It has been decisive progress in the approach and the treatment of an illness affecting millions of men. Active member, in one of the most renowned units of cardiovascular surgery in Europe, Ronald Virag already developed an intervention aiming at improving the blood flow in the penis. His intervention called “dorsal vein arterialization” is known in the United States as the “Virag’s procedure”. In 1981, during a surgical procedure on the penis, he discovered that an old medication extracted from poppies, and used since the late 19th century to dilate blood vessels, could induce an erection when injected into the penis. After a year of observing the effects of papaverine on volunteers, among which himself, the discovery is being published in the famous medical journal “Lancet”. From then on nothing will ever be the same again, neither in the treatment, as quite rapidly a thousand of patients will benefit from it, nor in research as the intracavernous injection will now be the reference and the means of triggering the erection when needed to be studied. Since then, the technique was improved, for the comfort of patients who may now use an automatic injector. Today, “more than ten years after the Viagra outbreak, the intracavernous mini injection remains the most efficient and reliable medical treatment for erectile dysfunction.”

Ronald Virag (born December 7, 1938, in Metz, France), is a French cardiovascular surgeon with a special interest in andrology (the medicine of masculine health). After training in general and cardiovascular surgery at Paris University, Dr. Virag, in 1977, created a multidisciplinary group for studying erectile dysfunction, on which he has focused since 1978. In 1981, he founded a private institute in France devoted to clinical study and research on impotence and developed early programs using intracavernous drugs to treat the condition.

He was born in 1938 in Metz from Hungarian parents who became French citizens before his birth. His father was a former professional soccer player, known as Edmond Weiskopf (1911–1996). After attending the Ecole des Roches and Lycée Janson de Sailly, in Paris, he entered the Faculty of Sciences, then Medicine, of Paris. He was received as an intern, and subsequently as a resident in Parisian Assistance Publique Hospitals. Afterward, he was appointed Chief Resident at the Faculty and specialized in cardiovascular surgery. He created several cardiovascular surgery units in private institutions before taking an interest in male sexual dysfunction caused by vascular diseases. He developed specific techniques to explore penile hemodynamics and designed various original surgical interventions, such as the penis dorsal vein arterialization which was named after him. In 1982, he discovered, almost by chance, that an old medication, papaverine injected directly into the penis was able to provoke a long-lasting erection. Thus, he developed the technique of intracavernous injection used worldwide since 1983 to treat erectile dysfunction. He was appointed as a consultant at Harvard Medical School. He now teaches within the different structures of French and foreign medical societies. He is a permanent member of the French National Academy of Surgery.