[Predictive factors on postoperative quality of life in transurethral resection of prostatic adenoma]

To identify the traits of patients undergoing transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) that best predict the outcome of the procedure; i.e., quality of life (QOL) changes.

The prostatic symptoms and the pre- and postoperative QOL of 151 patients submitted to TURP for BPH were evaluated by the IPSS AUA-7 questionnaire. The available preoperative variables (age, symptoms, US prostate size and DRE findings) were correlated with the QOL changes. Thereafter, the relationship between the available postoperative variables and the QOL changes were analyzed.

Of the available preoperative variables, symptoms and prostate size were the only factors that significantly influenced the variability of the QOL changes. Multivariate analysis permitted anticipating only 14% of that variability (r2 = 0.14). Analysis of all of the available post-TURP variables showed postoperative symptoms to be the only variable with a statistically significant relationship with the QOL changes. This model provides an explanation for the 60% interindividual variability of the QOL changes (r2 = 0.77, r2 = 0.603; p < 0.001).

We found no mathematical relationship between the preoperative factors and the QOL changes. These changes depended largely upon the postoperative symptoms. The remaining parameters analyzed in this study--including the weight of resected prostatic tissue--showed a weak influence, which suggests that the prostates react differently to TURP.