About BPH

If your symptoms are mild and do not affect your quality of life to a great degree, your doctor may recommend a conservative “wait and watch” approach. Together you and your doctor will monitor your condition by tracking your symptoms and will discuss the risks of watchful waiting.

There are a number of prescription medications to manage BPH symptoms. These include alpha blockers, which relax the muscles around the neck of the bladder making it easier to urinate, and alpha reductase inhibitors which are used to shrink the prostate. These medications have been widely studied and help many patients feel relief from their urinary symptoms. Some patients experience side effects on BPH medications, including dizziness, headaches, and sexual dysfunction.²

The iTind procedure is an alternative to prescription medications and invasive surgical treatment that relieves lower urinary tract symptoms due to an enlarged prostate. The iTind procedure reshapes the prostate to allow for better urine flow and provides rapid symptomatic relief to patients.^4,5

Unlike other non-surgical BPH procedures, the procedure involves no heating or removal of prostate tissue, and no permanent implant is left behind.

Some patients experience side effects during the procedure, but they are generally only mild to moderate. Side effects, if experienced, include pain or burning with urination, blood in the urine, pelvic pain, an urgent need to urinate and/or the inability to control the urge. Most of these side effects occur during the 5 to 7 day treatment period and resolve shortly after the device is removed.

This procedure utilizes permanent implants to lift and hold the enlarged prostate tissue out of the way so urine can flow through the prostatic urethra. The procedure provides rapid symptomatic relief with durable results and many patients go home without a catheter. However, patients should consider risks associated with a permanent implant.⁶

The most common side effects are mild to moderate and include pain or burning with urination, blood in the urine, pelvic pain, urgent need to urinate and/or the inability to control the urge.

Steam therapies use the natural energy stored in water vapor, to shrink enlarged prostates. Most patients begin to experience symptom relief within two weeks, and maximum benefit may be reached within three months.^7,8 However, applying heat to the prostate can cause the tissue to swell and therefore often require a few days or weeks of post-operative catheterization. For some patients, this may result in a longer time returning to normal life.^7,8

An effective treatment for BPH is Plasma Vaporization Therapy. The PlasmaButton™ device gently vaporizes the enlarged prostate tissue. Plasma Vaporization Therapy has shown a reduction in procedure time and catheterization time post-operatively while delivering long-lasting results and a quick return to normal activity.⁹ Learn more about Plasma Therapy.

Use of incompatible/non-validated equipment with the ESG-410 electrosurgical generator can lead to excessive/incorrect HF output. This can result in thermal injuries or death to the patient, and the operator as well as damage to the system. Improper use will void the warranty of the Olympus generator, endoscopes, and accessories.

TURP is a surgical procedure where the prostate is cut out to gain space for normal urination and other BPH symptom relief. During the procedure, the prostate is reached by inserting a thin, tube-like instrument called a resectoscope through the urethra. A camera on the end of the resectoscope provides a magnified view of the prostate, and a loop at the tip of the resectoscope is passed along the prostate, removing the enlarged and obstructing tissue. TURP procedures are safe and have long-lasting results in treating BPH symptoms. TURP has traditionally been the “gold standard” in treatment for men with BPH.² After a TURP procedure, there is a risk of bleeding and short- and long-term complications.

Laser resection of the prostate is a less-invasive surgical procedure known as either photoselective vaporization of the prostate (PVP) or holmium laser enucleation (HoLEP). The risks and complications are similar to those seen with TURP and typically a catheter is required after the procedure.²

Enucleation can be performed through two different surgical methods: Plasma Enucleation is performed using the most common resection equipment and completely frees the benign tissue from the gland to provide relief of enlarged prostate symptoms. Laser Enucleation is a procedure which uses a laser to remove tissue that is blocking urine flow through the prostate.

Enucleation may cause hematuria, irritation of the bladder that results in frequent and/or urgent urination, irritation of the urethra that results in frequent urination and/or a burning sensation, or retrograde ejaculation.