So, nearly 40 million men in the United States have BPH, yet only 12 million men are under the care of a doctor. So, what are the symptoms associated with BPH? Commonly, it may include things such as urinary urgency or frequency, difficulty getting the urine flow started or hesitancy of urination. Commonly, it may be a slowing of the urinary stream, at times the stream may start and stop, and not infrequently people may have to awaken more at night to urinate. Well, the most common option initially typically is started with medication and that typically falls into two different classes of drugs. One is termed an alpha blocker and the other is termed a 5-alpha reductase inhibitors.

Common names for these drugs may be recognized under things such as Flomax or Tamsulosin, Finasteride or Dutasteride. Other treatments for BPH that don’t involve medication can be grouped into two different categories: minimally invasive treatments and then more invasive or surgical treatments. The minimally invasive treatments include things such as heat-based treatments or cooled thermotherapy, transurethral needle ablation, there’s other heat-based treatments that now can deliver steam into the prostate, and there’s other minimally invasive treatments, not heat-based such as UroLift. The other surgical treatments that are typically done under full anesthesia are those using laser or laser vaporization of the prostate, or commonly the Roto-Rooter job or transurethral resection of the prostate.

So, what are the risks of treating people with medications? Well, commonly medications that are used for BPH, they may cause some side effects such as dizziness, sometimes headaches, not infrequently alterations in sexual functioning or something termed retrograde ejaculation. Some people also may feel just run down or something that we call asthenia. Those are common potential side effects of the BPH medication and commonly may cause people to discontinue taking them.

So, how is the UroLift treatment system different? Well, the UroLift treatment is a minimally invasive procedure typically done in less than an hour in the office setting. It does not require any cutting, heating, destruction, or removal of the prostate tissue. So, what it does it’s a small device that we place through the urethra with a camera attached to it and tiny implants are placed through the prostate physically to hold the tissue and move the prostate tissue out of the way. Kind of like placing tie-backs on a window curtain, leaving the unobstructed pathway for urine to flow much more normally again. Typically this procedure does not require a catheter afterwards, preserves sexual functioning, and is approved for men above the age of 45 in the United States.

So, what’s recovery like for patients undergoing the UroLift treatment? Commonly, patients do not require a catheter after the procedure, but about 15% of patients in my experience may. There’s minimal downtime required following the treatment and we commonly ask that patients refrain from any vigorous physical activity for the first two weeks. Common side effects may include things such as burning with urination, frequency of urination, urgency to urinate, and blood in the urine. Some patients may also experience general pelvic discomfort. These are common side effects or symptoms that occur after many prostate or all prostate treatments, just tending to be much shorter timeframe following the UroLift treatment. The Center of Excellence designation for UroLift treatment is a national program that recognizes urologists who have achieved the highest level of training, expertise, and commitment with using the UroLift treatment for their patients. Really, what it means is that you’re delivering optimal outcomes to your patients using the UroLift treatment system, so I’m very excited to have been named the first UroLift Center of Excellence in Houston and the second in Texas.