Implant question

[Davegb]

I meet with a local urologist who does implants. He does about 30 a year. He does it as outpatient surgery, meaning I would go home after waking up from the surgery. He does not insert a catheter, says he drains the bladder completely before starting the surgery. He says first two weeks very sore, prescribes pain meds and says use ice.

Does this sound like a normal implant surgery process? Any comments will be appreciated

[SwedishDave]

i would avoid a low volume surgeon unless you have to because of insurance and you might not affoard the real deal in the US.

[Journeyman]

As for your question, it sounds normal to me . Just research and ask questions before you commit to any surgeon. Look at his reviews. Lots of useful info on this site

[Lost Sheep]

I meet with a local urologist who does implants. He does about 30 a year. He does it as outpatient surgery, meaning I would go home after waking up from the surgery. He does not insert a catheter, says he drains the bladder completely before starting the surgery. He says first two weeks very sore, prescribes pain meds and says use ice.

Does this sound like a normal implant surgery process? Any comments will be appreciated

At 30 a year, he is practised, but not "high frequency" implanter. Quiz him hard on his philosophy about aggressively sizing, how inflated your will be post-op, his techniques to avoid infection, how he chooses what implant to use for you, the plan for post-op followup and other such questions. What he answers may be less important than HOW he answers. Do you good about how he includes you as part of your medical decision-making team? (Some excellent surgeons have no bedside manner, but the surgeon I chose gained my confidence by how he treated me.) And ask if any of his former patients would be willing to contact you (HIPPA would prevent him from giving their contact information to you) for testimonials.

As far as catheterization post-op; I did not like having a catheter from a theoretical standpoint and the fact that his patients do not require one is nice. BUT being able to urinate without having to get out of bed or even moving at all was a blessing of major convenience.

[newbie443]

I meet with a local urologist who does implants. He does about 30 a year. He does it as outpatient surgery, meaning I would go home after waking up from the surgery. He does not insert a catheter, says he drains the bladder completely before starting the surgery. He says first two weeks very sore, prescribes pain meds and says use ice.

Does this sound like a normal implant surgery process? Any comments will be appreciated

This publication is getting to be a bit dated (2016) but has very good information in it. https://www.garber-online.com/pdf/Highe ... ctions.pdf What you want to stay away from if you can are the 2 lower case load doctors in that study. Not only for infection risk but other reasons for reoperations as well. And life span of devices are higher for the top to groups of higher case load doctors. Your doctor fits into the higher case load group if your doctor is telling the truth. Doctors can really say anything they want and how do we know if that is true or not. I think a number of doctors have learned about this and other sites and know what to say to our questions and are not telling us the truth a lot of the time.

I would ask to speak to a man the doctor implanted. Doctors differ a lot in the way they do this surgery, and many are very good even with very different approaches. Some indicators of a doctor's skill and that really is concerned for the best outcome for you I think are wait time for activation and whether or not the doctor does reoperations for replacement or repairs. My local doctor's for example all do 2-3 implants a year. They leave men partially inflated for 8 weeks before activation. They and the men they operated on I spoke to all said I would have at least 1" size loss from surgery. The business office told me that I need to pay thousands up front as insurance did not cover all cost of the surgery and that outcomes were so poor that many men would have the device removed. Or in other words the doctors did not do reoperations to fix problems or replace the devices. Just one and done and would only remove the device in a second surgery.

Health Grades used to be very good with publishing data on doctors experience levels for penile implant surgery. Seems that something caused that to go away. But you can check your doctor's name on Health Grades and see if penile implants are listed in the experience section and see what other people have posted on the doctor. You can also put your doctors name in the search section of this site and see if anyone has posted on that doctor. If your doctor does not do reoperation and replacement surgery I would ask where men are sent for reoperations and that would be where I would go to for my implant.

I was kept overnight as I travelled for my surgery and was alone. I had a cath overnight and it was removed the next morning. I think all that time flat on my back with a compression dressing on my penis scrotum was a key part to my easy recovery. I did not take any pain pills except for the flight home. I agree with Lost Sheep that not having a cath would mean being up more to pee and less time flat for that first 24 hours after surgey and may have a negative impact on recovery. In that maybe a bit more swelling and pain.

Even with all this it is worth pointing out that even the lowest experienced doctors have cases of great outcomes and high satisfaction rates. So to answer the question yes that is a normal process being that doctors do differ a lot in this. If I had a local doctor that did 30 implants a year I would have gone to that doctor before I would have traveled as I did for my surgery. I always say to start local and after care is worth a lot I think. So look for the best doctor you can find locally and then expand your search if you do not find a doctor you trust for this.

Good luck with your doctor search,