Type of Surgery
Information
Last updated: 02/17/2009
The penis is composed of one channel for urine and semen, and three compartments with tough, fibrous walls containing erectile tissue. With appropriate stimulation, the blood vessels that lead out of these compartments constrict, trapping blood. Blood pressure fills and hardens the compartments producing an erection of sufficient firmness to perform sexual intercourse. Additional stimulation leads to ejaculation, where semen is pumped out of the urethra. When this system fails, erectile dysfunction or impotence (failure to create and maintain an erection) occurs.
Impotence can be caused by a number of conditions, including diabetes, spinal cord injury, prolonged drug abuse, and removal of the prostate gland. If the medical condition is irreversible, a penile prosthesis may be considered. Men whose impotence is caused by psychological problems are not recommended for implant surgery.
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Other Information
A penile prosthesis is a medical device implanted in a penis during a surgical procedure to enable an erection for satisfactory and satisfying sexual intercourse. The device is not used only in men with organic or treatment-resistant psychogenic impotence who fail to achieve and maintain an erection using erectile dysfunction drugs. A penile prosthesis is also used in the final stage of plastic surgery phalloplasty to complete female to male (transman) gender reassignment surgery as well as during total phalloplasty for adult and child patients that need male genital modification because of congenital anomalies, iatrogenic, accidental or intentional penile trauma, and micropenis.
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