A survey of patients with inflatable penile prostheses for satisfaction

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).

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.

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).

There was a high degree of overall patient satisfaction across implant types.