Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Perspective
  • Published:

Education in penile prosthesis implantation

International Journal of Impotence Research volume 35, pages 620–622 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

For decades, surgical training has been organized following the “Halsted” principle: see one, do one, teach one. However, it became obvious that this educational model was no longer the best strategy available to train residents in different kinds of different surgical procedures: all medical fields, surgery and urology included, became progressively more complicated due to many different reasons. One of these is that new devices, such as robotic surgical systems, became more easily accessible. In this context, we must see the availability of penile implants [1] on the market. These were introduced in 1973 and, since this was a completely new device at the time, new surgical techniques needed to be developed. During the last five decades, different penile implant devices became available and consequently, different surgical techniques were developed [2]. The prosthetic urology field became a specialty on its own and therefore needed a specialized training program.

The necessity for a more focused surgical training does also need to be seen in a more global context: that of the evolution of resident training in general. First, medico-legal issues have become increasingly important in medical practice and subsequently in surgical resident training. Thereafter, the ethical aspects are another important impacting factor in surgical training: it can be a challenge to meet the various ethical demands in training unexperienced young residents. Mainly due to economic factors, resident training programs are shortened. Finally, new regulations in restricting working hours of residents puts a real stress on the surgical training programs. Taking all this together, it becomes clear that there needs to be a great emphasize on a more efficient, focused training of young residents.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Data availability

All data are available with the author.

References

  1. Scott FB, Bradley WE, Timm GW. Management of erectile impotence. Use of implantable inflatable prosthesis. Urology. 1973;2:80–2.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Rodriguez KM, Pastuszak AW. A history of penile implants. Transl Androl Urol. 2017;6 Suppl 5:S851–7.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. van Renterghem K, Ghazi A. Surgical education in the 21st century: implications for sexual medicine. Int J Impot Res. 2020;32:544–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Moncada I, Martinez Salamanca JI, Lledo Garcia E, Mulcahy JJ. Textbook of urogenital prosthetic surgery: erectile restoration and urinary incontinence. Madrid, Spain: Editorial Médica Panamericana S.A.; 2021.

  5. van Renterghem K, Ghazi A. 3D pelvic cadaver model: a novel approach to surgical training for penile implant surgery. Int J Impot Res. 2020;32:261–3.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Witthaus MW, Saba P, Melnyk R, Divya A, Ralph D, van Renterghem K, et al. The future of penile prosthetic surgical training is here: design of a hydrogel model for inflatable penile prosthetic placement using modern education theory. J Sex Med. 2020;17:2299–306.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Jorissen C, De Bruyne H, Baten E, van Renterghem K. Clinical outcome: patient and partner satisfaction after penile implant surgery. Curr Urol. 2019;13:94–100.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Carvajal A, Henry GD. Prevention of penile prosthesis infection. Curr Urol Rep. 2022;23:75–81.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Trost LW, Baum N, Hellstrom WJ. Managing the difficult penile prosthesis patient. J Sex Med. 2013;10:893–906.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Van Renterghem K. Lessons learned from 25 years of prosthetic surgery. J Vis Surg. 2019;5:73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jessa Hospital Hasselt, Hasselt, Belgium

    Koenraad van Renterghem

  2. Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium

    Koenraad van Renterghem

  3. University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Koenraad van Renterghem

Authors
  1. Koenraad van Renterghem
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Koenraad van Renterghem.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Consultant Coloplast; Boston Scientific Company; Rigicon. All content is from single author: KvR.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

van Renterghem, K. Education in penile prosthesis implantation. Int J Impot Res 35, 620–622 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-023-00688-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41443-023-00688-3

Search

Advanced search

Quick links