Turapy--transurethral ablation prostatectomy by high temperature radiofrequency--preliminary results of a multicenter...

Thermal treatment of BPH has been introduced several years ago as an alternative treatment modality for patients suffering from symptomatic BPH. The initial temperatures ranged from 44.5 to 48 degrees C. With these temperatures, about 60-70% of the patients showed significant improvement of their subjective, mainly irritative symptoms with only mild changes in their obstructive parameters. In order to improve the therapeutic effects, increase in energy delivered allowing higher temperatures in the order to 70-100 degrees C was investigated regarding the feasibility, tolerance, pathological lesions and clinical effectiveness. A new radiofrequency technique, TURAPY--TransURethral Ablation Prostatectomy, an outpatient ablative BPH treatment has been introduced recently. The treatment is applied transurethrally with a helicoidal antenna without any cooling system. Temperature delivery in the order of medium 75 degrees C was applied during a medium time of 45 minutes. An ongoing multicenter study included 38 patients. 15 patients were operated by retropubic prostatectomy after 6-30 days, for a histopathology study and 23 eligible patients were entered in a clinical study and analyzed to determine the efficacy of the TURAPY treatment. The tolerance was excellent and although patients experienced initial heating sensation at the onset of treatment, as the temperature rose to 40-50 degrees C (as with previous modalities of thermotherapy), they did not experience further pain and the procedure was never stopped. Urinary retention was observed in about 80% of the patients, due to the extensive tissular destruction. These patients had suprapubic catheter inserted one day to a maximum of one week (medium 3 days).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)