The artificial sphincter in the treatment of congenital incontinence

From 1974 to 1988 the available AMS artificial sphincter models (AS 721, AS 761, AS 742, AS 791, AS 792 and AS 800) were implanted in 40 patients with congenital incontinence using a total of 75 prostheses. Despite mechanical problems with the earliest models 82.5% of all patients obtained a good result. The definitive failure rate due to urethral erosion was 2.5% and due to infection of the prosthesis 7.5%. The remaining failures were due to upper urinary tract deterioration in four patients.