Temporary prostatic urethral stenting as a provocative tool to determine surgical eligibility in complex bladder...

To evaluate the usefulness of a temporary prostatic urethral stent to determine which complex surgical patients would benefit from definitive surgical management of their benign prostatic hyperplasia.

We retrospectively analyzed our benign prostatic hyperplasia database and identified all patients that received at least one temporary prostatic urethral stent between April 2008 and December 2010.

Forty Spanner(TM) stents were placed in 20 patients. Mean age was 78.1 years and prostate size was 62.1 cm(3). Urinary retention was present in 60% (12/20) of patients. No statistically significant changes in mean maximal flow rate, average flow rate, and post void residual was noted. Seven patients (35%) did well with the stent and progressed to definitive surgical management whereas 10% of the cohort (2/20) leaked urine with the stent in place and subsequently went back to catheter management. Another 30% (6/20) were unable to tolerate the stent while 1 patient passed away unrelated to the stent.

The use of the temporary prostatic urethral stent provided a good provocative test that enabled patients to experience what their voiding status would be if they were to undergo definitive surgical management.