The impact of diabetes mellitus on penile length in men undergoing inflatable penile prosthesis implantation

Abstract

Abstract Objective: To evaluate the changing cavernosal length of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and organic erectile dysfunction (ED) who were treated with inflatable, three-piece penile prostheses, a current surgical treatment option in our clinic, over the course of 12 years. Materials and methods: Between April 2000 and December 2012, we retrospectively investigated data from patients who were diagnosed with organic ED and performed penile prosthesis implantation (PPI). Of the 239 patients, 235 patients were included in the study. Four patients who were operated on for transsexuality were excluded from the study. All patients were divided into two groups; group 1 included patients with DM, and group 2 included patients without DM. Data, including age, body mass index (BMI) in kg/m2, operation history, comorbidities, International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) questionnaire results, combined intracavernous injection and stimulation (CIS) test results, the measured length of the corpus cavernosum while implanting the penile prosthesis, complications, operation time, mean hospital stay, and the satisfaction of the patient and partner, were recorded. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests were used for statistical analysis. A p-value of <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: The mean age was 57.9±10.5 years. In the study, 65 patients with DM, 51 patients who underwent radical pelvic surgery, 21 with only additional disease hypertension (HT), 28 with combined DM and HT, 5 with hyperlipidemia, 4 with DM and radical pelvic surgery, and 62 without any additional comorbidity were identified. The mean measured length of the corpus cavernosum was 17.277±0.1509 cm in group 1 and 17.289±0.1598 cm in group 2 (p<0.05). Additionally, the other parameters, including age, operation time, and the satisfaction of the patient and partner, were not different between these groups (p>0.05). Conclusion: The length of the corpus cavernosum and the destruction of cavernosal tissues do not depend only on DM. We conclude that these features may have multifactorial causes.