OBJECTIVES: Inflatable penile prosthesis (IPP) implantation is a definitive treatment for men with erectile dysfunction (ED). Few urologists receive IPP procedure instruction and experience during a fellowship or residency, potentially limiting patient access to IPP care. This study explored the US administrative claims data of IPP implanters to better understand IPP practices.

METHODS: This study used administrative claims data from Definitive Healthcare to identify implanters who performed IPP (CPT^®54405) in hospital outpatient settings on a sample of patients with commercial insurance or Medicare in 2021. The number of IPP procedures performed by each implanter was calculated by summing the implant claim volume performed on commercially-insured and Medicare patients. Less than 11 Medicare procedures performed by any individual implanter were defaulted with a procedure volume of 10. A geographical analysis was conducted using each implanter’s primary affiliated hospital to identify the US state in which each implanter performed their IPP procedures.

RESULTS: In 2021, 21,835 outpatient-based IPP procedures were performed by 2,049 urologists, equivalent to approximately 10.7 procedures per implanter per year. The IPP volumes were left skewed as 91.4% of urologists performed less than 20 IPP cases, representing 66.3% the procedure volumes. The top implanters who performed more than 100 IPP cases accounted for 6.3% of the procedure volumes. A geographical analysis found Florida (11.2%), California (7.8%), Texas (7.5%), New York (5.9%), Michigan (4.2%), Ohio, and Georgia had the highest numbers of IPP implanters. The findings are consistent with the top seven states with the highest IPP volume (Florida [11.4%], Texas [9.4%], New York [6.5%], California [6.3%], Ohio [5.8%], Georgia [4.2%], and Michigan [3.4%]).

CONCLUSIONS: A majority of IPP implanters performed less than 20 outpatient-based IPP procedures in a given year. Since the ED prevalence among US men is on the rise, future research could explore ways to improve IPP implant training and provision.