Benign prostatic hypertrophy is a problem that affects the majority of men along with the advancement of age. How do you treat it? We discuss the topic with Professor Giorgio Guazzoni, Head of Urology at Humanitas.
The presence of this disorder represents a difficulty in people’s quality of life. It involves an increase in prostate volume, which also involves a difficulty in emptying or trying to empty the bladder.
From medical therapy to surgery
Therefore, it is necessary to identify the medical therapy that helps to alleviate symptoms. In cases where medications are ineffective or no longer necessary, interventions to resolve obstructions can be proposed, which allow the patient to urinate more easily. Today, the interventions are carried out through trans-urethral techniques, meaning through the urethra. The patient is subjected to loco-regional anesthesia and therefore remains awake during the operation but without sensitivity from the navel down,” explains Professor Guazzoni.
What are the benefits of the intervention?
This is an intervention of minimal invasiveness that can clearly improve the patient’s quality of life. The eventual surgery, with whatever technique it is conducted, we correlate a single side effect (and thus not a complication) which is retrograde ejaculation, that is, during an orgasm the seminal fluid does not come out of the urethra but falls into the bladder.
Thanks to the surgery, the patient is not forced to go to the emergency room for the placement of a catheter because of the inability to urinate. In the same way, the surgery decreases the risk of the disease reaching an advanced age, no alternative surgery will be necessary, and the patient will not be forced to always use a catheter to urinate,” concludes Professor Guazzoni.
