Prostate hypertrophy is a natural development, which affects one in two men around the age of fifty, and even more after that.
To explain to us what it is, Dr Alexandre Delrée, urologist at the Saint-Luc clinic in Bouge, uses the metaphor of an orange. “We can compare the prostate to a fruit with a peel, and in the middle of the flesh of the fruit, passes the urethra. When the fruit – actually, the adenoma, which is located in the middle of the prostate – enlarges, it compresses the urethra. This causes mechanical obstacle.”
It can result in the appearance of difficulty emptying the bladder or frequent and urgent urges to urinate day and night and other more occasional complications (stones, blood in the urine, retention of urine). urine…)
Initially, the patient is treated with medication, then when the treatment is not or no longer effective, a surgical solution is offered.
Before, how did we operate?
Dr. Delrée has been operating with lasers for five years. “Before, for small prostates – up to 60 ml – we also operated using natural means, with an electric current which fragments the prostate tissue into small shavings..”
For larger prostates, it was a classic operation: “The patient was open between the pubis and the umbilicus. We opened wide to surgically enucleate the prostate, thus removing the flesh of the orange.”
The new method, the Thulium laser, allows the adenoma to be removed endoscopically, passing through the urethra. “We free the intraprostatic urethral canal by removing the enlarged adenoma”, explains the urological surgeon.
The detached nucleus is pushed into the bladder cavity and then it is fragmented using a tissue morcellator. “The tissue is sucked towards small blades, and then the small fragments are sucked outwards, thanks to a current of physiological serum.”
Another technique to treat the prostate: steam, at the Saint-Jean clinic in Brussels
What does this change for the patient?
Not all hospitals use this technique yet. What is its benefit for the patient? There are several advantages according to Dr Delrée: “There is less bleeding, and this allows natural intervention for larger prostates, with less scarring, and better convalescence.”
Thus, most patients can leave the hospital the day after the operation, which takes place under general anesthesia, or under spinal anesthesia (injection is in the lower back between two lumbar vertebrae, to put the entire lower body to sleep).
No more biopsy to track prostate cancer
