42 months of experience with the Mentor inflatable penile prosthesis

The Mentor inflatable penile prosthesis is a hydraulic device that was introduced in May 1983 for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Since its introduction further technical modifications and improvements have been made on the product. From the onset the reliability, function and cosmetic effect of this physiological device have been excellent. The modifications have served to improve the ease of operation and to increase further the reliability as demonstrated by our progressive decrease in the incidence of mechanical failures. From May 1983 to November 1986 we implanted 137 Mentor inflatable penile prostheses. Our over-all mechanical failure rate was 7.3 per cent. As a result of the modifications, however, the mechanical failure rate decreased to 3.1 per cent during the last 38 months of that period when 129 (94 per cent) of the prostheses were implanted, and during the last 24 months of that period when 86 (63 per cent) of the prostheses were implanted the mechanical failure rate was only 1.2 per cent.