Early experience with penile prostheses in spinal cord injury patients

Lee, In Eui; Park, Won Hee; Shim, Hong Bang

Abstract

Recently the use of penile prostheses in spinal cord injury population has been beneficial for sexual dysfunction, maintenance of external devices and the treatment of penile skin lacerations. We have implanted penile prostheses in 38 spinal cord injury patients in the last 2 years. The patients were between 25 and 64 years old(average 40.6 years old). Followup ranged From 4 months to 2 years (average 14.9 months). All the patients received penile prostheses to treat erectile impotence. We used malleable penile prostheses in 13. Hydroflexes in 5 and Dynaflexes in 20 patients. Rod sizes and diameters ranged from 12 to 18 x from 0.9 to 1.15 cm for the malleable type and from 14 to 18 x 1.1 cm for the Hydroflex and Dynaflex. Complications dictating loss of prostheses occurred in 4 cases (10.5%). One pumping failure and one prosthetic infection were developed in Dynaflex and Hydroflex, while one spontaneous intraurethral protrusion and one glandular erosion in malleable types. In the former 2 cases they were successfully exchanged to Dynaflexes and in the latter 2 cases they were removed. As a whole surgical success rate was 92.1 % and sexual satisfaction rate was 78.9%. In conclusion, the penile prosthesis implantation is considered as a useful treatment method for erectile impotence in spinal cord injury patients.