A decade of experience with the inflatable penile prosthesis

The inflatable penile prosthesis has served to provide a physiological erection and physiological flaccidity to a large number of impotent patients with a high degree of satisfaction. The mechanical and surgical complications have continued to decrease in incidence since the first implantation in February, 1973. Computer generated life table methods of analysis now provide us with a known experience of the incidence, the extent, and the nature of any surgical or mechanical complications. With these methods and close monitoring we see significant improvements in our overall results. Improvements in the prosthesis have steadily reduced mechanical failure and increased mechanical reliability to the point that our expectations for the next 10 years are for excellent results in a very high percentage of patients. The improvements in both technique as well as instrumentation have significantly reduced surgical complications. Our infection rate was 2.4% in 1300 implantations. Since 60% of these were due to Staphylococcus epidermidis, and since this is the most common airborne organism found in the operating room, we are hopeful that the use of the Surgical Isolation Barrier System (SIBS) will reduce our infection rate well below 1% for the next decade. The newer IPP 700 addresses all of the mechanical problems that have been identified in the last 10 years of experience with this prosthesis. We have now implanted over 100 patients with the new IPP 700 inflatable penile implant since it became available to us in February of 1983, and we have seen no failures whatsoever during the past 4 months. Our perception of this device is that it is truly superior.