Introduction: Male urinary incontinence due to sphincter incompetence is usually secondary to prostate surgery. After failure of other treatments, severe sphincter incompetence requires placement of an artificial urinary sphincter The authors present the results of the AMS 800 artificial urinary sphincter based on a series of 47 consecutively operated patients.
Patients and methods: From 1990 to 2003, 47 AMS 800 were inserted by the same operator and according to the same technique. The aetiologies of urinary incontinence were: radical prostatectomy (45% of cases), transurethral resection of the prostate (36%), open prostatectomy (10.5%), and others (8.5%).
Results: The mean age of the patients was 65 years. The mean follow-up was 36 months. The mean time to insertion was 3 years and 10 months (range: 5 months-15 years). 23.4% of patients presented one or several complications (mechanical failure: 19%; infection; 10.6%; erosion: 4%; bladder stones: 2%), 21% of patients required one or several surgical revisions after a mean interval of 25.5 months (range: 2-80 months). The actuarial 5-year revision rate was 25.5%. With a mean follow-up of 36 months, 98% of patients had a functioning artificial urinary sphincter and 83% still had their original artificial urinary sphincter Social continence and patient satisfaction rates were 87% and 95.7%, respectively.
Conclusion: These results are comparable to those of similar published series. The AMS 800 is associated with high continence and patient satisfaction rates and currently remains the reference treatment for refractory sphincter incompetence in men.