A survey of patients with inflatable penile prostheses for satisfaction.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: We assessed patient satisfaction with 3 types of penile prostheses, namely the AMS 700 Series(R), Mentor Alpha 1(R) and Mentor Alpha NB(R). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The subjects consisted of 330 patients selected by stratified, systematic random sampling from among 1,298 subjects undergoing virgin 3-piece inflatable penile implant surgeries performed by the same surgical team at 1 hospital between January 1992 and December 1998. Data were collected by computer assisted telephone interviewing with a survey developed by the authors. The survey consisted of 37 questions in 7 sections, including 1 demographic section and 6 patient satisfaction sections. RESULTS: Of the 330 patients selected 248 (75%) could be contacted. Of these, 199 (80%) responded to the full survey and the remaining 49 (20%) agreed to respond only to the question, "How satisfied are you with the prosthesis?" Of the 199 full responders 12 (6%) had AMS implants and 187 (94%) had Mentor implants. Of the 49 single question responders 5 (10%) had AMS implants and 44 (90%) had Mentor implants. Of the 248 patients the overall satisfaction rate was 69%. Although there was no significant difference at the 5% level in patient satisfaction by implant type, responses tended to favor the Alpha IPPs in terms of overall sexual satisfaction (p =0.058), natural feeling of the prosthesis (p =0.061), flaccid appearance of the penis when deflated (p =0.054), and education with demonstration of inflation and deflation (p =0.075). CONCLUSIONS: There was a high degree of overall patient satisfaction across implant types.