Vaporization Technique for Bph

Enlarged prostate problems are common among older males. Treatments including herbal remedies, lifestyle changes, drugs and hydrotherapy can provide relief, but there are inevitably a number of men for whom prostate reduction surgery becomes the most appropriate treatment. The latest evolution of these surgical prostate reduction techniques is known as TUVP, or transurethral vaporization, of the prostate, and this technique is providing better results with less of the problems often associated with more invasive surgeries.

What is BPH?

• Enlarged prostate gland problems, also known as BPH, or benign prostatic hyperplasia, are caused when the prostate gland enlarges as men age. The enlargement of the prostate gland creates a restriction of the urethra and retention of urea, which in turn causes pain and a host of other problems such as blood in the urine, lower back pain, dribbling, painful ejaculation and a burning sensation when urinating. Men with BPH usually have difficulty urinating and if left untreated, BPH may lead to bladder dysfunction and or kidney damage.

Vaporization Technique

• The new TUVP technique is essentially a refinement of the previously favored TURP technique in which an electric current is passed through a thin wire and used to cut away sections of glandular tissue that are causing the urethra obstruction. In TUVP, the obstructing tissue is not cut away, but is instead vaporized by a rolling electrode that delivers a strong electrical current. This process causes less bleeding than cutting surgeries and generally allows for shorter post-surgery recovery times.

  Unfortunately, the TUVP technique is only appropriate for men with small or normal sized prostate glands. The tissue layer beneath any vaporized tissue becomes hardened and therefore more difficult to vaporize, meaning that the TUVP procedure may encounter difficulties in situations where there is a large amount of prostate tissue that needs to be removed.

  Developed in conjunction with the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and introduced in 1997, TUVP, also known as laser photoselective vaporization, or PVP, has become popular as an easy to perform and effective treatment for BPH, according to the Mayo Clinic. There are a number of variations on this procedure, including one, holmium laser prostatectomy or HoLEP, that preserves samples of the removed tissue in order that they may be analyzed for possible cancerous or other conditions.