High Energy Thermotherapy in the Treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: Results of the European Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Study Group

Abstract

Purpose: We docum ented th e resu lts of high energy tra n su re th ra l microwave therm otherapy in th e tre a tm e n t of benign pro static hyperplasia.M aterials and M ethods: We evaluated 116 p atien ts following tra n su re th ra l microwave th e r m otherapy according to sym ptom scores, tra n sre c ta l ultrasound, free voiding and pressure-flow study param eters.Results: Significant im provem ent was noted in all objective and subjective param eters. More over, cavities in th e prostatic u re th ra were observed in alm ost 40% of the patients.Conclusions: H igh energy tra n su re th ra l microwave therm otherapy is an effective therapy for benign prostatic hyperplasia. P atien ts w ith larg er prostates and m oderate to severe bladder outlet obstruction seem to be th e best candidates for th is higher energy therm otherapy protocol, although m orbidity is increased.

Transurethral interstitial laser coagulation of the prostate and transurethral microwave thermotherapy vs transurethral resection or incision of the prostate: results of a randomized, controlled study in patients with symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia

“…The results for symptom reduction are comparable with those reported by others [4,8,10,17,22]. In a large study by Emberton et al [2] of > 3000 patients treated by TURP the AUA score decreased from a mean of 20.1 at baseline to 7.4 at 3 months.…”

High energy transurethral thermotherapy in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia: criteria to predict treatment outcome

“…When evaluating the results of the higher energy protocol version, it seemed that the best responders were patients with moderate to severe outow obstruction and patients with larger prostates. 6,11,12 These results were obtained by stratifying patients in preselected cohorts without knowledge of the contribution of each individual baseline-parameter to therapy-outcome.…”

“…5 Recently a new generation TUMT (software high energy) has been introduced resulting in improvements of thermotherapy treatment outcome in general but at the cost of increased morbidity. 6 With the availability of different treatment protocols, one may ask what the position of this so-called high energy thermotherapy (HE-TUMT) treatment is. Since the advantage of the microwave technology lies in its power to tailor the treatment to the individual need we should indeed try to identify the ideal patient pro®le for this high energy treatment modality.…”

Immunohistochemical evaluation of the safety of transurethral electrovaporization of the prostate and its clinical results

“…The new minimally invasive BPH ablation techniques, such as laser prostatectomy and microwave thermotherapy are more likely to induce prolonged irritative symptoms. 26,27 These symptoms have been related to an in¯ammatory process caused by a coagulative necrosis which is the pathological process underlying these techniques. It is therefore possible to hypothesize that an excessive electrodissection carried out in order to attain a more complete prostatic tissue vaporization could produce a similar symptomatic pattern toward a necrotic process below the coagulated tissue.…”