Is there such a thing as a surgeon's volume being *too* high?

[Asdefxx]

I was planning to go with one of the superstar surgeons this forum raves about, but I figured I should give my local surgeon a chance first.

I ask him how many of these surgeries he does every year, and lo and behold he tells me he's #2 in the country for AMS (which is my preferred brand, I don't want a Titan). He also works directly with AMS and was telling me about these cool developments I should expect in the future, like to control or even schedule my future implant through a phone app 3 years from now. Which sounds amazing, but not amazing enough to postpone this amazing surgery.

Anyways, this is equivalent to like 150 to 200 surgeries a year. Obviously we want our surgeons to have 40+ (though I've seen some say 25+), but is there such a thing as too much? Or would you consider it to be a small positive, like 150-200 is even a a bit better than a mere 40?

[GoodWood]

I’m curious about your surgeon saying they are “#2 for AMS”. Who is the surgeon? How many did they say they have done in their career and how many do they do a year.

The big names in penile implant do thousands of implants during their career. It’s their primary surgical procedure and they have full surgical schedules several days a week. So to be #2 would be a big number.

You don’t HAVE to have a “superstar” to get a good result. This forum is filled with men who have great implants done by surgeons that only do a handful of implants a year. As long as everything goes according to plan and there is nothing unexpected a third year surgical resident could do a fine job.

The value of having a high volume surgeon is they have a better chance of avoiding complications and have more experience dealing with unexpected or difficult situations. I’m not saying they NEVER have surgical complications or unsatisfactory results, just that they have fewer of them. They also have more experience sizing correctly. Not too small so you lose a lot of size. Not too large where you can have erosion or chronic pain.

An often overlooked benefit to using a high volume surgeon is the entire team of people around that surgeon are more experienced in the implant process. The physician assistants and nurse practitioners, the surgical techs, scrub nurses, circulating nurse, the staff that process the surgical instruments for sterility, even the office staff that process the insurance claims. All of them have a higher likelihood of doing their job correctly and knowing how to avoid or correct problems.

Lots of things go into the decision of which surgeon to use. Location, insurance coverage, price, which product they use, personality, experience. Each of us weighs the importance of those things differently as we come to our decision.

Have consultations with the surgeons available to you and then make your decision.

[Old Guy]

The negatives I see is availability. If the surgeon is doing 50+ a month good luck getting scheduled anytime soon. I also think of them rushing to get through the day of 5-10 implants. Sure don't want to be # 10 for the day!

[Asdefxx]

I’m curious about your surgeon saying they are “#2 for AMS”. Who is the surgeon? How many did they say they have done in their career and how many do they do a year.

It's Dr. Rusilko in Pittsburgh, and it's 150 to 200 surgeries a year.

They also have more experience sizing correctly. Not too small so you lose a lot of size. Not too large where you can have erosion or chronic pain.

Yeah that was one answer of his that concerned me. Not actually of his, but his physician assistant. He made it sound like men who do this *will* lose half an inch, but as we know from browsing this forum that's just not true. I made a mistake not asking the surgeon himself more about it. But I'm also less concerned about size than other men, since I'm already at 6" or 6.5", still would be a fantastic tradeoff even if I had to lose half in exchange for at-will erections.