NEW BPH TREATMENTS, AND HOW TO EVALUATE THEM : LASER PROSTATECTOMY: PROS AND CONS. THE RESULTS
Early randomized trials comparing laser prostatectomy to TUR demonstrate that urinary flow rates and symptom improvement are better in patients who have TUR. In these early laser studies, about 10 percent of men needed to be retreated in the first year. Laser treatment of BPH is too new for anyone to make predictions about its long-term effectiveness.
So, the jury’s still out; the final verdict on laser prostatectomy won’t be given until we know what the true retreatment rates will be. Currently, the results for laser prostatectomy aren’t as immediate or as long-lasting—and improvement is not as dramatic—as in TUR. However, unlike TUR, laser prostatectomy doesn’t involve hospitalization, and it can be done under local anesthesia. Currently, many men would rather have two TURs in ten years than one open prostatectomy. It may be that, in the future, men will prefer to have two or three treatments with a laser than one TUR Another point to keep in mind, as a Stanford urologist noted in a recent journal article, is that “all laser devices available today represent first-generation products … All will most likely become obsolete in the foreseeable future,” as the design of these devices, and the knowledge it takes to use them, continues to improve that surgeons can use them, continuous to improve.
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