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Severe persistent stress incontinence following radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer treatment, although not very common, remains the most annoying complication affecting patient's quality of life, despite good surgical oncological results. When severe incontinence persists after the first postoperative year and conservative treatment has been failed, surgical treatment has to be considered. In these cases it is generally accepted that artificial urinary sphincter is the gold standard treatment. AUS 800 by American Medical Systems has been successfully used for more than 35 years. Recently three more sphincter devices, the Flow-Secure, the Periurethral Constrictor, and the ZSI 375, have been developed and presented in the market. A novel type of artificial urinary sphincter, the Tape Mechanical Occlusive Device, has been inserted in live canines as well as in human cadavers. These new sphincter devices are discussed in this paper focusing on safety and clinical results.

Introduction. Pneumoscrotum is a rare clinical entity. It presents with swollen scrotal sac and sometimes with palpable crepitus. It has many etiologies. One of them is due to blunt trauma of the thoracic cage, causing pneumothorax and/or pneumomediastinum. Case Presentation. We report the case of an 82-year-old male who was transferred to the Emergency Department with signs of respiratory distress after a blunt chest trauma. A CT scan was obtained, and bilateral pneumothoraces with four broken ribs were disclosed. Subcutaneous emphysema expanding from the eyelids to the scrotum was observed, and a chest tube was inserted on the right side with immediate improvement of the vital signs of the patient. Discussion. Pneumoscrotum has three major etiologies: (a) local introduction of air or infection from gas-producing bacteria, (b) pneumoperitoneum, and (c) air accumulation from lungs, mediastinum, or retroperitoneum. These sources account for most of the cases described in the literature. Treatment should be individualized, and surgical consultation should be obtained in all cases. Conclusion. Although pneumoscrotum itself is a benign entity, the process by which air accumulates in the scrotum must be clarified, and treatment must target the primary cause.

Introduction Patient and female partner satisfaction after implantation of an inflatable penile prosthesis (IPP) assessed by objective means, and the correlation between the partners, is important for determining postoperative sexual life. Aim The primary goal was to evaluate patients' erectile function and patients' and their partners' satisfaction after IPP implantation. A secondary aim was to investigate potential determinative factors of satisfaction according to device characteristics, demographics, and cause of erectile dysfunction (ED). Methods Ninety patients, who underwent IPP implantation as an alternative to refractory or undesirable medical treatment for ED, were evaluated. Patients who could not or refused to participate, or were out of a relationship, were excluded. The 69 remaining patients were evaluated for their pre- and postoperative erectile function and posttreatment satisfaction for themselves and their partners. Main Outcome Measures Preoperative and postoperative scores on the International Index of Erectile Function Questionnaire–five items (IIEF-5) were compared. The Erectile Dysfunction Inventory of Treatment Satisfaction (EDITS) was given to males and their female partners. Patient demographics, etiology of ED, and implant characteristics were correlated also with patients' EDITS scores. Results Mean IIEF-5 scores demonstrated a significant improvement after IPP implantation: from 8.88 ± 3.75 to 20.97 ± 4.37 (P < 0.001). The mean patients' EDITS score was 75.48 ± 20.54, whereas mean female partners' score was 70.00 ± 22.92, highlighting high posttreatment satisfaction for both. Regression analysis suggested a direct linear correlation of satisfaction between the sexual partners as a degree of satisfaction. There were no statistically significant differences according to level of education or implant characteristics. Concerning the etiology of ED, no conclusions could be made. Conclusions Overcoming previous limitations in determining post-IPP implantation satisfaction, our study reiterates high rates of patient and partner satisfaction. Of particular note, patient satisfaction appears independent of prosthesis type and cylinder length.

Urinothorax (UT) is a rare and often undiagnosed condition, defined as the presence of urine in the pleural cavity due to the retroperitoneal leakage of urine accumulation, known as urinoma, into the pleural space. UT usually is a transudative pleural effusion that presents in patients with obstructive uropathy and it may occur following surgical procedures in the ureter or kidney such as ESWL, PCNL, and URS. Its diagnosis requires a high degree of clinical suspicion since the respiratory symptoms tend to be absent or mild and the urological signs tend to dominate. However, UT may rarely present with severe and acute dyspnea as well. The objectives of this study are to describe two new cases of this rare entity, a bilateral case and an ipsilateral case focusing on the side that occurs according to the affected renal insult, and to alert the physicians to include UT in their differential diagnosis of pleural effusions especially in patients with recent urinary tract disorders.

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Objective: HER-2 is overexpressed in a variety of human malignant tumors and has been widely used in the prognosis and treatment of breast cancer. In urothelial cell carcinoma of the bladder, some reports have shown an association between HER-2 overexpression and worse outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine the association between HER-2 expression and other clinicopathologic parameters in 48 patients treated for primary non-muscle-invasive transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder. Methods: The initial expression of HER-2 in tumor specimens and its expression upon disease recurrence following instillation therapy (BCG, Mitomycin, or Epirubicin) were studied. Results: HER-2 expression was significantly increased between these two timepoints. In multivariate analysis, HER-2 expression at the time of diagnosis was found to be the only independent factor and was associated with reduced recurrence free survival. Conclusions: HER-2 status could be an additional biomarker for predicting the outcome of nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer, which could help identify high-risk patients for recurrence and possible progression who require close observation and perhaps radical treatment, such as early cystectomy.

Purpose:The aim of the present study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of conventional and ambulatory urodynamic studies (UDS) in estimating neobladder function.Methods:We evaluated 32 patients who underwent radical cystectomy and orthotopic Hautmann W neobladder with Abol-Enein-Ghoneim uretero-intestinal anastomosis for bladder cancer. The patients were initially examined by using both conventional and ambulatory UDS.Results:Conventional UDS detected a very high mean intravesical pressure at maximum capacity (53.7±17.5 cm H2O). By contrast, the mean intravesical pressure detected by using ambulatory UDS (which reflects the dominant pattern of pressure variation during filling) was significantly lower (34.4±5.2 cm H2O, P<0.001). The comparison between intravesical pressure at half of maximum capacity in conventional UDS and the mean value in ambulatory UDS did not show significant difference (P=0.152). The mean voided volume in conventional UDS was greater than both the mean voided volume (P<0.001) and the mean maximum voided volume in ambulatory UDS (P=0.001). However, this difference did not affect the postvoid residual urine volume measured in both studies (P=0.207). Moreover, incontinence episodes recorded in ambulatory UDS were more frequent but not statistically significantly different from those recorded in conventional UDS (P=0.332).Conclusions:The estimation of neobladder function by means of ambulatory UDS seems to provide interesting research data for the mode of lower urinary tract function in patients with orthotopic substitution after radical cystectomy. The great high value in ambulatory UDS, in cases in which conventional UDS had failed, is due to the exposure of daily and nocturnal incontinence episodes, confirming our patients’ complaints.