SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION AND INFERTILITY Surgical Treatment of Erectile Dysfunction and Peyronie’s Disease Using Malleable Prosthesis Ufuk Yavuz,* Seyfettin Ciftci, Murat Ustuner, Hasan Yilmaz, Melih Culha Purpose: Peyronie’s disease (PD) is a condition of middle aged men and frequently accompanied by erectile dysfunction (ED) which was attributed to penile deformity, vascular pathology and psychological components. The implantation of semi-rigid penile prosthesis allows for these patients to undergo a simple procedure aimed at correction both penile deformity and ED. The aim of this study was to investigate surgical and clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction rate at long term follow-up after semi-rigid penile prosthesis implantation (PPI) in men with PD and ED. Materials and Methods: A total of 66 patients with mean age of 49.2 (range, 30-76) years old underwent semi-rig- id PPI between 1995 and 2006. Genesis (Coloplast®) was used for implantation in a standard manner by penoscro- tal approach without using any graft and remodeling technique. In all patients, dilatation of corpora was performed without any difficulty and straightening of the penis was achieved. A retrospective review of clinical database and prospective telephone survey were conducted in all patients. Results: The mean follow-up time was 9.7 years (range, 6 to 17). There wasn’t any clinical infection and compli- cation during follow-up period. Fifty-nine patients were sexually active at the time of the interview. None of the patients reported residual curvature. The overall patient satisfaction was 91.5% (54 patients). Primary reasons for dissatisfaction were decreased penile length and prosthesis problems. Conclusion: Based on our results semi-rigid PPI is effective and easy procedure for treatment of men with PD and ED without any complication and with high patient satisfaction rate in long-term follow up period. Keywords: penile induration; surgery; penile prosthesis; erectile dysfunction; patient satisfaction; questionnaires; penis. INTRODUCTION Peyronie’s disease (PD) which was first described by a French physician de la Peyronie in 1743, is an acquired local connective tissue disorder including changes in the collagen composition and characterized by development of a fibrotic plaque over the tunica al- buginea on the corporal bodies of penis.(1) This fibrous plaque occasionally calcifies and leads to painful penile erection, penile deformities and associated sexual dys- function.(2) PD appears to be a sexual medicine condi- tion of middle aged men and frequently accompanied by erectile dysfunction (ED) which is attributed to penile deformity, vascular pathology and psychological prob- lems. The typical presentations of the disease are pain during erection, ED and penile deformities.(3,4) PD is accompa- nied by ED which was attributed to penile deformity, vascular pathology and psychological components. ED has been reported in a range of 20%-54% of men with PD;(5) however ED-PD concomitance may increase up to 83%.(6) Several procedures have been described to manage penile curvature and ED. Chung et al reported patients who had severe penile curvature ( greater than 60 ) undewent graft surgery and about 65% of them dissatisfied with the treatment outcomes such as ED development in their study.(7) Penile prosthesis surgery with or without corrective surgery for curvature is one of the valuable choice in the literature.(8-10) Implantation of semi-rigid penile prosthesis allows for these patients to undergo a simple procedure aimed at correction both penile deformity and ED. In this study, we evaluated our experience in 66 patients with PD and ED in whom a semi-rigid penile prosthe- sis was implanted and deformities were corrected with a simple procedure and at long-term follow-up. Surgi- cal and clinical outcomes and patient's satisfaction rate were assessed. MATERIALS AND METHODS Department of Urology, School of Medicine, University of Kocaeli, Kocaeli, Turkey. *Correspondence: Department of Urology, University of Kocaeli, Campus of Umuttepe, 41380, Kocaeli, Turkey. Tel: +90 262 3038708. Fax: +90 262 3038001. E-mail: drufukyavuz@gmail.com. Received March 2015 & Accepted September 2015 Vol 12 No 06 November-December 2015 2428 Penile Prosthesis in Peyronie’s Disease-Yavuz et al. Sexual Dysfunction and Infertility 2429 Study Population Between 1995 and 2006, a total of 66 patients aged from 30 to 76 years old (mean 49.2) with PD and ED were underwent malleable penile prosthesis implanta- tion (PPI) without additional plaque surgery including graft and remodeling technique. Most of the patients were evaluated in our Andrology department, also some of them were referred to our clinic. Evaluations Initially, a detailed history and physical examination were performed and patients completed International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) questionnaire. All pa- tients had various severity of difficulty to have sexual intercourse which was refractory to the conservative treatment such as phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) in- hibitors. In this study one stage procedure was planned for both ED and PD treatment. Degree of the penile curvature was less than 30° in 28 patients (42.4%), be- tween 30°-60° in 29 patients (43.9%) and more than 60° in 9 patients (13.7%). Direction of the curvature was dorsal in 32 (48.5%), lateral in 15 (22.7%), ventral in 10 (15.2%) and dorsolateral in 9 patients (13.6%) (Ta- ble1). The median preoperative duration of PD was 27 months (range, 13-66). None of the patients in our se- ries had undergone previous penile surgery. Patients with stable disease, defined as at least one year from onset and at least six months of stable deformity were admitted to the surgery. Patients with very hard and calcified plaques were excluded and treated most- ly with grafting procedure. Penile vascular conditions were assessed with Doppler ultrasonography and vas- cular pathologies such as arterial insufficiency and/or veno-occlusive dysfunction were determined. All pa- tients were informed about the procedure and we ob- tained a written consent for PPI. A retrospective review of clinical database and prospective telephone survey were conducted in all patients. At the time of review, all patients were specifically asked about of satisfacto- ry sexual intercourse and recurrent curvature for which they underwent surgery. Patient satisfaction was de- fined as successful and satisfactory sexual intercourse at each attempt. Surgery Procedure Perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis included intrave- nous injection of 200 mg teicoplanin and 80 mg gen- tamycin 1 h preoperatively to be repeated before dis- charge and followed by an oral quinolone every 12 h for 5 days. Semi-rigid malleable Genesis (Coloplast®) penile prostheses were implanted by a standard manner by a single surgeon (MC) using penoscrotal approach without using any additional surgery. Tunica albuginea was incised vertically approximate- ly 3-4 cm and the corporal bodies were dilated with Hegar dilators of 7-13 French before the insertion of the malleable prosthesis. In patients who had less than 60° of curvature, we achieved penile straightening and adequate dilatation without additional procedure. We measured the corporal body length at the maximal stretch position with Furlow inserter, and the appro- priate size of malleable penile prosthesis was implant- ed. Particularly, in 3 patients who had more than 60° of curvature, penis is not adequately straightened as a result of cylinder implantation. The cylinders are then forcibly counter-flexed in the direction opposite that of the curvature and relaxing incisions were made using scissors to the most fibrotic part of the tunica, not so deeply, avoiding any tunical rupture. In one patient the plaque was incorporated into the neurovascular bun- dle, the latter was dissected through the plaque. After straightening of the penis in all patients, the closure of the tunica albuginea was performed with interrupted 2-0 polyglactin absorbable sutures. The subcutaneous tissue and skin were closed with continues 3-0 polyg- lactin absorbable sutures. The penis was dressed with an elastic bandage and a Foley catheter was inserted for one day. Prophylactic antibiotics were used in all pa- tients for seven days. A retrospective review of clinical database and prospec- tive telephone survey were conducted in all patients. Patients questioned about the sexual activity, prosthesis problems, satisfactory sexual intercourse and residual curvature. The IIEF-5 Questionnaire was used to ob- tain sexual function and satisfaction data (Table 2). Standard t-test was used to compare various means and proportions and P value less than .05 accepted as statis- Table 1. Characteristics of study subjects. Variables Values Age, years (IQR mean) 49.2 (30 - 76) Degree of curvature, no. (%) < 30° 28 (42.4) 30°- 60° 29 (43.9) 61°- 90° 9 (13.7) Direction of curvature, no. (%) Dorsal 32 (48.5) Lateral 15 (22.7) Ventral 10 (15.2) Dorsolateral 9 (13.6) Abbreviation: IQR, Inter Quartile Range. Age is presented as median (range, minimum-maximum). tically significant. RESULTS Mean age of patients, degree and direction of curva- tures were summarized in Table 1. Median IIEF scores were significantly high in postoperative period than in preoperative (Table 2, P < .001). The mean degree of the penile curvatures was 39.77° (range, 20°-90°). In 9 patients the degrees of curvature were ≥ 60°. Corporal perforation and/or urethral injury during the procedures were not seen. As far as postoperative early complica- tions were concerned, we determined hematoma and edema in few patients that resolved spontaneously without any morbidity. Mean follow-up period was 9.6 years (range, 6 to17). During the follow–up period, no implant infection and any other complications were ob- served. Overall, 59 patients were sexually active at the time of review. Five patients were lost in the follow-up period. The median IIEF-5 domain score for erectile function of the sexually active men was 28 (27 to 29). Three pa- tients (4.5%) were very depressed about the decreased penile length. Two of the 59 men (3.3%) complained with prosthesis problems inhibiting them for sexual intercourse due to inadequate girth of the penis. None of the patients reported residual curvature, glans hyper- mobility and penile sensitivity impairment. The overall patient satisfaction was 91.5% (54 patients). Primary reason for dissatisfaction was decreased penile length. The other reason was prosthesis problems which lead to unsatisfactory sexual intercourse owing to inadequate girth. DISCUSSION ED has been reported in a wide range of 20%-83% in patients with PD.(5,6) Recently penile vascular abnor- malities are found preoperatively in more than 50% of the patients who had PD.(11) Although corporal veno-oc- clusive dysfunction is the most frequent pathological finding, cavernous artery inflow can also be affected. (6) PD causes an increased incidence of veno - occlusive abnormalities and ED caused by venous leak. Therefore straightening procedures are not always successful in restoring erectile function in patients with PD.(12,13) Many surgical procedures used to correct penile de- formities and type of procedure is dependent on the type of deformity, erectile function, penile length, hour- glass deformity, patient expectations, and surgeon’s preference.(14) PPI is the standard of care for patients with PD and concomitant ED nonresponsive to medical treatment to achieve curvature straightening and for de- finitive mechanical erection. Incision of the fibrotic plaque followed by implantation the Small-Carrion penile prosthesis was first described by Raz and colleagues.(15) The authors reported success- ful treatment in 11 of 12 patients with the follow-up of 6 months to 2 years. A single prosthesis removal owing to prosthesis infection was reported. Kelami and col- leagues(16) treated 15 of 22 patients with PD and ED with implantation of Small-Carrion semi-rigid penile pros- thesis using infrapubic approach without excision and/ or incision of the fibrous plaque. No complication was noted with the follow-up period of 2-12 months except penile edema which was seen in the first weeks of the operation. Ghanem and colleagues(17) reported an 80% success rate using semi-rigid penile prosthesis in pa- tients with PD and ED without any plaque surgery. No operative complication was encountered in their study. The procedure was performed in 20 patients using sub- coronal incision and had satisfactory straightness and Table 2. Comparison of preoperative and postoperative IIEF scores. IEFF Domains Preoperative Postoperative P Value* Erectile function 8 28 .01 (Q 1. 2. 3. 4. 15) Orgasmic function 5.3 8.8 .01 (Q 9. 10) 5.3 Sexual desire 6.1 9 .01 (Q 11. 12) Intercourse satisfaction 4.1 11.1 .01 (Q 6. 7. 8) Overall satisfaction 3.1 8.8 .01 Abbreviations: IIEF, International Index of Erectile Function; Q, question. * The P values obtained in the t-test results. Penile Prosthesis in Peyronie’s Disease-Yavuz et al. Vol 12 No 06 November-December 2015 2430 rigidity of the penis. A total of 16 patients achieving minimum 12 months follow-up were identified in the study. All of them were engaged in sexual intercourse successfully. Among them, only 2 patients were dis- satisfied with glans hypermobility leading to deviation of urine stream and cosmetic appearance. Cohen and colleagues(18) presented a proximal approach while per- forming semi-rigid PPI in 22 patients with PD and ED. Overall, 94% of patients were able to resume the sexual intercourse at the time of review. Vascular compromise and/or skin slough were noted in 3 patients at the fol- low up period. All these studies reported the short term follow-up results of their surgical outcomes after PPI in patients with PD and ED. Furthermore, similar to our study, they did not perform any additional surgery regarding to penile plaque. Although our follow-up pe- riod was higher than those of above stated studies, we concluded similar satisfaction rate. Similar study was carried out by Montorsi and col- leagues.(9) They treated a total of 50 patients with PD using semi-rigid penile prosthesis without any addi- tional surgical procedures and maneuvers. The authors re-evaluated 48 patients 60 months after the surgery and did not encounter any major peri- and post-operative complications. Overall, 44 (92%) patients were sexu- ally active at the time of review. In their opinion the actual rate of satisfied patients should be assess at long term follow up. Twenty three of 48 patients were totally satisfied with the sexual activity after the surgery. The most common reason for dissatisfaction was loss of the penile girth. Avoiding additional plaque surgery, using semi-rigid penile prosthesis and long-term follow-up period are similar to our study. However, our study group was larger than Montorsi and colleagues' study. We performed relaxing incisions in three patients. Con- sidering the dissatisfaction rates of both studies, patient expectations may be different between these two differ- ent study groups. In the literature, there are some studies in which the outcomes of semi-rigid and inflatable PPI procedures have been reported. Ganabathi and colleagues(19) used PPI in the treatment of the PD in 8 patients with a mean follow-up period of 49 months. Penoscrotal approach was used for implanting semi-rigid penile prosthe- sis in 6 and inflatable penile prosthesis in 2 patients. They reported penile prosthesis infection in one man in semi-rigid group 3 months after the surgery and re- moved the prosthesis. In inflatable group, one patient has died at the time of review. Remaining 6 patients were evaluated and all of them had satisfactory sexual intercourse. There was no patient with recurrent penile curvature. They did not compare these 2 groups because of low number of patients. Eigner and colleagues(8) also reported 35 men who had undergone PPI for the treatment of PD with ED. Of the 26 patients who underwent semi-rigid PPI with infrapubic approach, only 5 required further surgical intervention for Peyronie’s plaque to achieve an ade- quate cosmetic result. In inflatable penile prosthesis group, additional plaque surgery was performed in 6 of 9 patients to achieve adequate straightness. Two com- plications were encountered in their study; moderate hematoma required no specific therapy and urethral perforation during corporal dilation in semi-rigid group. Their overall satisfaction rate was 88% with a mean fol- low-up of 6.9 years. The difference of this study from the current one is additional plaque surgery in both groups. Comparing semi-rigid and inflatable penile prosthesis for PD was the advantage of this study. PPI without any additional procedure and manual modeling correct the majority of the curvatures during prosthet- ic surgery. Eigner and colleagues(8) considered the in- frapubic approach allowing access to Peyronie’s plaque without degloving the penile shaft. The other study that reported the results of semi-rig- id and inflatable prosthesis in PD was carried out by Djordjevic and colleagues.(14) The authors used mallea- ble semi-rigid and inflatable penile prosthesis in 49 and 13 patients with PD, respectively. In patients whose curvatures degree ranged from 45° to 85°, additional re- laxing tunical incisions were performed. Overall, 95% of the patients had complete penile straightness with a median follow-up of 35 months. In semi-rigid group, there was decrease of penile girth in 7 of 49 patients, 3 of which were treated with replacement of inflatable penile prosthesis. No device infection or mechanical failure was reported. In semi-rigid group, 23 men had glans numbness which spontaneously decreased and disappeared in 6 months after the surgery. In patients with mild degrees of curvature, straightening can be achieved with only PPI without any plaque surgery. The satisfaction rate and absence of recurrent curvature were similar to our study. Some authors used only inflatable PPI in the treatment of PD and ED. Malloy and colleagues reported use of inflatable PPI in 19 patients, 18 of them were treated successfully using inflatable penile prosthesis.(20) The authors achieved adequate straightness and rigidity in 10 patients with performing only placement of the pros- thesis. Additional surgery as incision of the plaque was necessary for obtaining satisfactory results in 8 patients. (20) Levine and colleagues used inflatable penile pros- Sexual Dysfunction and Infertility 2431 Penile Prosthesis in Peyronie’s Disease-Yavuz et al. thesis in 90 men for the treatment of PD and ED refrac- tory to medical treatment.(21) A complete penile straight- ness was achieved in 4% of patients with PPI alone. To accomplish complete straightness manual modeling, plaque incision and graft requirement were needed in 71%, 4%, and 13% of patients, respectively. Only one patient had prosthesis infection and 7% of patients re- ported mechanical failure of the prosthesis. The overall satisfaction rate of curvature correction was 84% with mean follow up of 49 months. Inflatable penile prostheses may have an advantage for the correction of minimal or mild residual curvatures (less than 30°). It acts as a tissue expander at each in- flation during attempts at sexual intercourse.(2) Both inflatable and malleable implants can be used for the treatment of both procedure, but inflatable prostheses are associated with higher functional satisfaction and lower persistent curvature rates.(14) In our series we also did not observe any residual curvature, additional relax- ing incisions were made in three patients and 5 patients were dissatisfied with the prosthesis. Advantage of our study was higher follow-up period and large study sam- ple size. This study is not without limitations. First we did not address the partner satisfaction. Second there was no an inflatable penile prosthesis group to make an ap- propriate comparison. Further prospective studies with semi-rigid and inflatable PPI are needed to draw final conclusion. CONCLUSIONS Our experience suggests that implantation of a semi-rig- id prosthesis in patients with PD and ED, leads to the satisfactory straightening of the penis without curvature recurrence, and provides high patient satisfaction rate in long-term follow-up, despite inadequate penile girth. CONFLICT OF INTEREST None declared. REFERENCES 1. De la Peyronie F. Sur quelque obstacles puis’opposental’ejaculationnaturelle de la semence. Mem Acad R Chir. 1743;1:425. 2. Ralph D, Gonzalez-Cadavid N, Mirone V, et al. The management of Peyronie's disease: evidence-based 2010 guidelines. J Sex Med. 2010;7:2359-74. 3. Smith JF, Walsh TJ, Lue TF. Peyronie's disease: a critical appraisal of current diagnosis and treatment. Int J Impot Res. 2008;20:445- 59. 4. Briganti A, Salonia A, Deho F, et al. Peyronie's disease: a review. Curr Opin Urol. 2003;13:417-22. 5. 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