AUS 800 Problem

Harvs mine was worse after abuot a year started leaking suddenly , I had developed a small leak in one of the cuffs. But didn't know that till after surgery. All that said the plan had been to replace the entire thing all along and the did just that. No problems much easier surgery, Doc was going to turn on much sooner but I still had swelling and had to strain a bit to pass liquid so we just waited the 6 weeks to turn on. I now get a little more spotting from coughing etc but pretty much back to normal. They also talked smaller cuffs but since it was only 1 year and the leak was there they used the same size cuffs.

Very few comments here and quite old, are there any updated experiences?

Hi JW,

Sorry for the late reply, but I had some issues posting to CSN, which have now been resolved.

I've had 2 AMS800 implants, the most recent being in the fall of 2019.  My first AMS800 lasted for over 6 years, before failing.  Clearly, I would not have gone for a second implant, if I were not satisfied with the first implant.

Simply put, if you are vertically incontinent, and if it is negatively impacting you desired quality of life, then an AMS800 is absolutely a gamechanger in restoring your quality of life from a continence standpoint.  For me, my vertical incontinence limited my going out of my home for more than 3-4 hours at a time, as I would fill my Depends, and urine would start to leak out through my pants.  For example, if I was visiting at a friend's house, I could not sit down, as my leaking urine would leak onto their furniture.  For me, this incontinence situation was unacceptable from the standpoint of quality of life.

I looked at the various incontinence slings that were available on the market as well as the AMS800, and I consulted with my Urologist Surgeon.  He advised me that the results from sling implants varied considereably, with the best results representing only marginal improvements in overall incontinence.  As such, he recommended the AMS800 implant to me as being the choice for the best and most consistent positive outcome for eliminating incontinence.

I will tell you that the surgery to implant an AMS800 is not trivial, and the recovery will take a while, up to 6 months for everything to settle down and become fully routine.  That being said,  you will become ambulatory within a few days after surgery, and be able to perform basic activities as well as before the surgery.  The return to 'normal' life can be achieved within 6-8 weeks, when the AMS800 implant is activated by your surgeon.

You can read about my experiences by going to the link below, which is my personal 3-month update thread.  Scroll down to the update dated January 17, 2020, and at the end of that update, you will find links to my specific posts about my AMS800 implant experiences.

https://csn.cancer.org/node/299431

I wish you the best of outcomes in your search for incontinence solutions.