Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

"Aquablation therapy is as effective as other minimally invasive treatments [for these men] but with fewer side effects, including only a 10% to 15% risk of retrograde ejaculation," said Ravi Munver, MD.

“We’re in the process of following patients who have taken saw palmetto extract and tracking their clinical diagnosis,” says Bilal Chughtai, MD.

"It’s the most satisfying of all the things I do as a surgeon. The benefits are so dramatic and often immediate," said Daniel Kellner, MD.

Chughtai was part of an international panel of leading urologists from North America and Europe who published the consensus paper, “Rethinking the Role of Saw Palmetto Extract for Men with Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms in North America."

Minimally invasive BPH procedures relieve symptoms and can be done in outpatient settings.

"Too often, men will stay silent about the symptoms they are experiencing from an enlarged prostate that hamper their day-to-day lives," said Dean Elterman, MD.

"The ProVee System has the potential to be an effective treatment for BPH that can be safely and reliably performed in the office setting," according to Steve Kaplan, MD.

“We're doing probably one of the highest volume of HoLEP cases…in the United States,” says Nicole L. Miller, MD, FACS.

“I think that there's certainly recognition that HoLEP is a procedure that can be self-taught and learned. But I think the learning curve is significantly shortened if you're mentored and certainly if you're fellowship trained,” says Nicole L. Miller, MD, FACS.

In this installment, Howard B. Goldman, MD, FACS, discusses the development of multichannel urodynamics testing.

“What made [multichannel urodynamics] so important is you're able to diagnose things much better; you're able to have a much better understanding of what's actually going on,” says Howard B. Goldman, MD, FACS.

“For clinicians, the analyses show that moderate and severe male LUTS in general are good indicators of poor health," the authors wrote.

The study evaluated holmium laser enucleation of the prostate, open simple prostatectomy, and robotic simple prostatectomy.

It was previously reported that UroLift received reimbursement approval from the Central Social Insurance Medical Council of Japan (Chuikyo).

“Patients need to understand that even if you tell them that you may be doing this as an ambulatory procedure, they may actually have to stay afterwards, depending on what you find in the operating room or what happens in the postoperative period,” says Michael A. Palese, MD.

"Although it might be easier to enumerate the cancer conditions, in the benign world, struggles continue to overcome patients challenged with these conditions," writes Gopal H. Badlani, MD.

"We shouldn't outright provide a negative attitude to our patients who are looking for alternatives that [serve as] complementary medicine, [like] herbal or phytotherapeutic agents," says J. Curtis Nickel, MD, FRCSC.

"Overall, these findings tell us that not everyone can undergo a same-day surgery for BPH," says Michael A. Palese, MD.

5-year results from the pivotal WATER trial showed IPSS improvement was greater with Aquablation compared with TURP.

“There's no question that many patients [undergoing transurethral BPH surgery] can be done as a same-day ambulatory procedure. But you need to look at the criteria as to who you're going to keep and who you're not going to keep,” says Michael A. Palese, MD.

“I think it's important for urologists and physicians to have an open mind in regard to complementary approaches to the treatment of BPH-related LUTS in men,” says J. Curtis Nickel, MD, FRCSC.

“The overall evidence in the global world literature is that saw palmetto can be effective,” says J. Curtis Nickel, MD, FRCSC.

“What's interesting in Dr Strum's analysis of these trials is that he not only looked at the English literature, which many of us are familiar with, but he looked at the many studies done in countries that were published in the non-English literature and never found [their] way into any of our analyses,” says J. Curtis Nickel, MD, FRCSC.

“I think now the government has realized…the work that’s involved in this procedure…[and] we’re now being reimbursed at an appropriate level,” says David M. Albala, MD.

J. Curtis Nickel, MD, FRCSC, discusses the origins of saw palmetto as an herbal therapy and how it was developed to treat lower urinary tract symptoms.

"The devices, telemedicine and remote care, and outpatient surgery risk us losing the human connection we had with the patient, as time spent with them is at a premium today," writes Gopal H. Badlani, MD.

“I think this really now suggests that Rezum is a financially viable procedure across these different treatment settings…the reimbursement now is really quite favorable,” says David M. Albala, MD.

Expert perspective on the treatment landscape of benign prostatic hyperplasia and lower urinary tract symptoms.

In a recent interview, Kevin T. McVary, MD, FACS, suggested that more physicians should take the time to educate their themselves and their patients on enlargement of the prostate.

In a recent study, Michael Palese, MD, Evan Garden, and co-authors estimated the long-term outcomes of Rezum water vapor therapy in treating men with large prostates who have benign prostatic hyperplasia.