Testicle implants are placed through skin incisions at various locations on the scrotum. For any standard testicle implant size (5cm in length or less or less than 40cc volume) a small skin incision poses no restriction to placing the implant. The extra soft durometer of a silicone testicle implant can be easily compressed between one’s fingers and its shape changes to slip through the incision. But in larger silicone implants this becomes more of a problem. While the obvious solution is to just make the incision bigger there is an alternative approach.
The funnel insertion device is well known in aesthetic breast implant surgery. It has enormous benefit in this application as the discrepancy between the size of the implant and the incision can be considerable. While the solution of just making the incision a lot bigger is an option, in aesthetic surgery it is important to keep implant entrance incisions as small as possible. The funnel device makes this possible since it changes the shape of the implant into a more linear form the allows it to pass through a smaller incision that one would think possible. It does so not only by applying uniform compression to the implant at its extrusion end but also by a silicone coating on its inner surface which makes it much easier for the implant too slide along the material.
The funneled device works best for rounder shaped implants which can be compressed the most in shape as they are forced through a small opening. Thus it works especially well for breast and buttock implants whom are either round or more concentric in shape. As a result it is not much of a stretch to imagine that they would work well for testicle implants as well even though they are much smaller in size.
In larger XL custom testicle implants the small opening of the funnel end does not need to be enlarged. The implant is dropped into the funnel and tightly wrapped behind it, pushing it closer to the end of the funnel but not completely to it. The end of the funnel needs to stay narrow to completely fit inside the scrotal skin incision. Once inside the incision the implant is inserted smoothly into the pocket by twisting the back end of the funnel.
As one gets into larger testicle implant sizes and a midline scrotal incision is used, the balance between implant size and the length of the incision may change unfavorably. The funnel device changes this imbalance back to a more favorable one.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana