The First Penile Implants
Small-Carrion Rod & the Scott Inflatable Prosthesis (1973)
Evidence grade 5 of 5, Settled. Read how the Atlas grades evidence.
The written rationale for this grade is still being prepared.
- FDA
- Penile prostheses are FDA-regulated devices (modern descendants approved)
Reference only. Not medical advice.
What can go wrong
Penile prosthesis surgery carries risks of infection, mechanical failure, and erosion, and it permanently alters the erectile tissue. It is generally reserved for ED refractory to less invasive options. This historical entry documents the devices' origins; the procedure requires specialist surgical evaluation.
This is something to take to a clinician. The Atlas can tell you what is known about the first penile implants in general. It cannot tell you what is happening in your body, and the difference matters most for exactly the symptoms that bring people to this page.
At the 1973 American Urological Association meeting, two groups presented landmark penile prostheses. The University of Miami team of Small and Carrion introduced paired silicone semi-rigid rods, while F. Brantley Scott's Baylor team unveiled the first inflatable penile prosthesis, adapting hydraulic artificial-sphincter technology to restore an on-demand erection. These 1973 devices founded modern penile prosthetic surgery, which remains the definitive treatment for ED refractory to medication.
1973: the year two rival teams gave erectile dysfunction a surgical cure.
What people take it for
What it is taken for. Approval, where it exists, covers only some of these.
How it works
Semi-rigid prostheses use paired bendable silicone rods to provide permanent rigidity; inflatable prostheses use a hydraulic pump-and-reservoir system to fill cylinders in the corpora cavernosa on demand, mechanically reproducing erection and detumescence.
Safety in detail
Penile prosthesis implantation is a surgical procedure with significant, irreversible effects on erectile tissue and documented risks including infection and device failure. It requires evaluation and surgery by a qualified urologic surgeon.
What people get wrong
Often saidA penile implant is a last-resort failure
ActuallyModern penile prostheses have high satisfaction rates and are the definitive solution for men who do not respond to medication, not merely a fallback.
Who profits, and who pushes back
Nobody is named here yet, because we have not done that work on this entry. Read that as unfinished. Somebody almost certainly sells this, and somebody almost certainly disputes it. Assume both until we have checked.
How we got here
Surgeons had experimented with rib cartilage, acrylic, and other materials to stiffen the penis since the early twentieth century, but modern penile prosthetic surgery was effectively born in 1973. At that year's American Urological Association annual meeting, two rival groups presented their results almost side by side. From the University of Miami, urologists Michael Small and Hernan Carrion described a semi-rigid implant: paired silicone rods of various lengths placed within the corpora cavernosa through a perineal incision, producing a permanently firm but bendable penis, the Small-Carrion prosthesis. From Baylor University, F. Brantley Scott, working with William Bradley and Gerald Timm, presented something more sophisticated: the first inflatable penile prosthesis (IPP). Scott's team had begun the work around 1969 while studying bladder neurophysiology and the artificial urinary sphincter; they borrowed that hydraulic principle, using a pump and reservoir to transfer fluid into expandable cylinders in the corpora, giving the patient a controllable, on-demand erection and a flaccid state at rest. The two 1973 designs defined the two enduring families of implant, malleable and inflatable, that, in refined form, remain standard today. Penile prostheses are now the definitive surgical solution for men whose erectile dysfunction does not respond to oral or injectable therapy, with high satisfaction rates in modern series.
- Early 1900sEarly attempts using cartilage and synthetic stiffeners
- 1969Scott's Baylor team begins inflatable-prosthesis development
- 1973Small-Carrion semi-rigid and Scott inflatable prostheses presented at the AUA
- 1970s-80sInflatable designs refined; multi-component systems emerge
- 1998Oral PDE5 inhibitors arrive; implants become a later-line option
- PresentImplants remain definitive for medication-refractory ED
At a glance
- Defining year
- 1973 (AUA annual meeting)
- Semi-rigid device
- Small-Carrion silicone rods (University of Miami)
- Inflatable device
- Scott IPP (Baylor University)
- Inflatable inspiration
- Artificial urinary sphincter hydraulics
- Inflatable development began
- 1969 (Scott's team)
- Status today
- Definitive option for medication-refractory ED
What this entry does not yet cover
What follows is unfinished work on our side, not a finding about The First Penile Implants. A short entry is not a safe entry.
- Cost and market. We have not documented what it sells for or who sells it.
- Supply chain. We have not mapped where it is made.
- Who uses it. We have not documented the user groups.
- What could change. No forward-looking summary yet.
- How it compares. We have not set it against the alternatives.
- Children and teenagers. We have not checked what is known about younger people.
- Where we land. We have not taken a position on this yet.
Sources
The studies below are named and described, but not linked. You cannot open them from here and check our reading against them, which means this page is our summary of the literature rather than a document you can verify. Weigh it accordingly until the links exist.
The studies that matter
Small & Carrion, semi-rigid prosthesis1973
Introduced paired silicone-rod penile implant at the AUA
Scott, Bradley & Timm, inflatable prosthesis1973
First inflatable penile prosthesis, enabling on-demand erection