Blood loss in prostatectomy. Comparison between injected and noninjected prostates

A prospective study was done during 100 open prostatectomies, measuring the blood loss by a simple photometric method as suggested by Jansen. Fifty patients were injected with 5% phenol into the prostate, preoperatively. The blood loss in the injected group was significantly less when compared with the noninjected group. During the postoperative period none of the injected group of patients required blood transfusion whereas 6 patients in the noninjected group needed transfusion (12%). It is concluded that injection of prostate preoperatively has the significant advantage of minimizing blood loss, and therefore preoperative ABO-Rh typing and antibody screen will suffice when the prostate is injected with phenol.