27 men fitted with 'bionic penises' in public hospitals at estimated cost of €500,000
Darragh McDonagh
A total of 27 men have been fitted with bionic penises as a treatment for erectile dysfunction in public hospitals during the past four years at a cost of about €500,000, new figures have revealed.
The surgically implanted devices, which are also known as penile prostheses, can be manually inflated to simulate an erection and allow a male patient to regain sexual function.
The most common model is a three-piece inflatable penile prosthesis (3p-IPP), which consists of an abdominal reservoir, a scrotal pump and dual cylinders implanted in the spongy tissue of the penis.
A total of eight patients were fitted with these devices in acute hospitals run by the Health Service Executive (HSE) last year, bringing the number of procedures to 27 in the past four years. The figures do not include elective or voluntary hospitals.
The HSE could not provide details relating to the cost of the treatment, but private clinics in the UK advertise prices exceeding €17,500, suggesting that the cost of the 27 procedures could amount to just under €500,000.
Records released by the HSE under freedom of information laws show that the patients who received penile prostheses in public acute hospitals since 2021 had been diagnosed with “failure of genital response” or “impotence of organic origin”.
The surgical implantation of these devices is typically considered a last resort where all other treatment options have failed, and the cause of patients’ erectile dysfunction can include trauma, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and prostate removal.
A study published in the Irish Medical Journal previously reported that 86 per cent of patients who had undergone the treatment in Irish hospitals between 2008 and 2017 had said they were “satisfied” with the outcome.
However, a number of post-operative complications were reported by other respondents, and 13 had to undergo at least one revision procedure due to device failure, erosion, or infection.
The causes of device failure reported by patients included kinking of tubing, disconnection of a tube from the abdominal reservoir, and migration of the reservoir within the body.
The study described the 3p-IPP device as the “gold standard” surgical treatment option. This is activated by squeezing and releasing a pump fitted in the patient’s scrotum, which moves fluid from a reservoir in the abdomen into the penis, creating an erection.
The latest figures show that 11 men underwent the procedure in acute hospitals in 2021, and a total of eight received the treatment in 2022 and 2023 combined, while another eight were fitted with the devices last year.
