[Prostatic Urethral Lift under local anesthesia: Single-centre retrospective observational study]

Urolift implant placement may be preferred to conventional endoscopic surgery for patients who wish to preserve their sexuality or for those who prefer a rapid post-operative recovery. The absence of general anaesthesia is an important element that reinforces the minimally invasive aspect of the procedure and improves the speed of recovery. The aim of this work was to report our preliminary experience of Urolift treatment under local anaesthesia.

A retrospective analysis was conducted including all patients treated with Urolift between 2017 and 2021 in our centre. Local anaesthesia was based on the instillation of 2 Xylocaine gels at 4°C into the urethra 15minutes before the procedure. The primary endpoint was the successful completion of the procedure without interruption due to pain or the need for any other form of anaesthesia or analgesia.

Twenty-seven patients were included with a median age of 65 years and a prostate volume of 46mL. The International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) was 23. The first 3 patients were operated on under general anaesthesia. Local anaesthesia was introduced from the fourth patient onwards. There was no recourse to other modalities of analgesia or anaesthesia or interruption of the procedure. The operating time was 10minutes and pain was assessed at 1 on a visual analogue scale. At 3 months, the IPSS score was 9 (P=0.001).

This preliminary experience confirms the feasibility of placing the Urolift implant under local anaesthesia without any failure of the proposed management. The improvement in IPSS score was consistent with previously published clinical trials.

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