PROSTATIC HEAT-TREATMENTS FOR URINARY OUTFLOW OBSTRUCTION

A nonrandomized pilot study was done of 139 patients with symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia treated with 3 prostatic heating devices. Of the patients 19 underwent transrectal hyperthermia with the Biodan Prostathermer dagger and in 15 the Primus Prostate Machine double dag ger was used. At 2 1/2 years 7 of 19 patients (37%) patients in the Pr ostathermer group and 6 of 15 (40%) in the Primus group had adequate s ustained improvement and had not undergone further treatment. At 1 yea r 55 of 100 patients (55%) treated with the Thermex-II sectional sign transurethral thermotherapy unit had a satisfactory result, with 40 (4 0%) having undergone transurethral resection of the prostate. The numb er of patients who failed therapy increased with each followup. Analys is of pretreatment parameters, including patient age, prostate size, p eak urinary flow rate, post-void residual urine volume and symptom sco re, did not predict a successful outcome. Although these devices have minimal effect on peak urinary flow rate, a subset of patients enjoy s ymptomatic improvement.