Antibiotics and Inflatable Penile Prosthesis Insertion: A Literature Review

This review article was invited by Sexual Medicine Reviews following our recent publication of a retrospective study that supported the safety of withholding postoperative antibiotics following inflatable penile prosthesis insertion in average-risk patients. Attention to antibiotic stewardship continues to grow throughout medicine due to the worsening problems associated with antibiotic overuse and resistance.

Liberal prescription of antibiotics without supportive evidence is being scrutinized. In this manuscript we review the substantial literature supporting the use of single-dose preoperative antibiotics and the use of antibiotic-impregnated or antibiotic-coated IPPs. We also highlight the dearth of evidence available to support the routine administration of postoperative antibiotics - a practice that recent guidelines have consistently discouraged. Ultimately, implanters must decide for themselves whether a historical practice pattern remains justified.

Written by: Benjamin Dropkin, MD, and Melissa Kaufman, MD, PhD, FACS, Department of Urology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN

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