An Innovative Strategy for Non-Grafting Penile Enlargement: A Novel Paradigm for Tunica Expansion Procedures

BackgroundPeyronie’s disease, diabetes, trauma, pelvic surgeries, and aging are conditions that promote penile fibrosis and trigger erectile dysfunction associated with penile reduction. These pathologies require an objective preoperative diagnosis and intraoperative management of penile shrinkage.AimThe goal is to develop a non-grafting procedure to promote lengthening using geometric patterns of multiple staggered small cuts on the tunica albuginea with an optimal ratio between tissue expansion and resistance to confine the cylinders inside the corpora cavernosa.MethodsBetween February 2016 and February 2019, 416 patients suffering penile shortening with or without Peyronie’s disease received implants using the tunica expansion procedures (TEP). Incisions were distributed in respective areas of the tunica to allow maximum expansion while maintaining strength to confine prosthetic cylinders within the corpora cavernosa to prevent bulges and denting.OutcomesIn accordance with these principles, surgical objectives and patient satisfaction were achieved in length and girth restoration regardless of the type of implant used to obtain adequate axial rigidity.ResultsThe sample of 416 patients included 287 cases of Peyronie’s disease having a mean axial deviation of 51° (0–90°) whose curvature was corrected in surgery, with pressure from the cylinders maintaining straightness for malleable and inflatable devices. Tunica constriction in 40.86% of cases was corrected with vertical relaxing incisions. Ventral glanspexy was performed intraoperatively in 92.8% of patients to prevent hypermobility. A penile gain of 3.3 cm (2–6) was measured intraoperatively.Clinical ImplicationsDiagnosis of penile shortening was performed by a stretch length test and pharmacologically induced erection together with the patient’s subjective opinion of penile loss. Lengthening procedure depends on the limit of the dissected neurovascular bundle. The patient and surgeon select the type of implant in accordance with his individual anatomic characteristics.Strengths and LimitationsThe TEP strategy is a non-grafting procedure based on tissue restitution by expansion instead of substitution, which provides surgeons a solution for penile enlargement to the limit of the dissected neurovascular bundle.ConclusionsThe TEP strategy has been demonstrated to be safe and effective to resolve problems of penile size reduction independently of penile curvature. It eliminates grafting and improves penile lengthening techniques using small, staggered cuts on the tunica albuginea, while maintaining tunica structural resistance to contain cylinders inside the corpora, preventing bulges and denting, facilitating tissue regeneration, and improving axial rigidity.Paulo H. Egydio, An Innovative Strategy for Non-Grafting Penile Enlargement: A Novel Paradigm for Tunica Expansion Procedures. J Sex Med 2020;17:2093–2103.