Advances in Treatment of Enlarged Prostate Glands | El Camino Health

>> BPH is an acronym for
Benign Prostatic Hyperplasiaand it’s a very common conditionthat affects virtually
all men as they get older. It’s an enlargement
of the prostate glandthat is not associated
with cancer, but associatedwith significant
urinary symptomsand bother as men get older. In the area of pharmaceutical
interventions we’ve startedto treat men primarily with
medications and then we doubleup their medications and
add a second medicationuntil they fail these
medicationsand most men ultimately
will fail these medicationsand then require
surgical intervention. So, traditional surgeryfor prostate enlargement
is primarilywith transurethral
resection of prostateor what we call the TURP or
a lot of guys refer to itas the roto-rooter surgery. This typically requires
a general anesthesia. There is a risk of
bleeding, risk of infection,and patients would have to
stay in the hospital for manyor for one to three nights
with a Foley catheterand continues bladder
irrigation. With the new GreenLight
procedure we’re ableto do the same– have the
same effective outcome,send these patients home the
same day and have a catheterfor only a short 24-hour period. This is truly the most minimally
invasive form of surgery. There are no cuts that we need
to use or make for the surgery. A small laser fiber is
inserted through the cystoscopeand a high power laser is ableto actually vaporize
the redundantor overgrown prostate tissuewithout creating any
kind of bleeding. We brought the GreenLight
Laser to El Camino Hospitalin November of 2010 shortly
after it was released. So, as part of the
Men’s Health Program,we thought it was
essential as a leading centerfor men’s health needs
that we employ the latestand best technology and
offer this to our patients. We have been chosen as oneof the four procedure training
sites for other physiciansfor the GreenLight Laser
technology for three reasons. One is because of our
very good outcomesof using the laser technology,
our high volume of surgeriesthat we perform as a
single institution,and our early adoption
of this technology. As the Medical Director of
the Men’s Health Programand as a physician in El
Camino Hospital I’m very proudto offer this new technology to
my patients to be able to stayon the cutting edge
of technology herein Silicon Valley and to
offer my patients the latestand greatest in terms of
therapy for their BPH. The changes that
patients experienceafter GreenLight therapy
surgery is significantly greaterthan when they are
taking medications. In fact, the best data showsthat objectively patients will
have a minimal improvementin their flow rate
or residual urineon maximal medication therapy,whereas after the
GreenLight Laser procedure,men will have significantly
higher improvementsin their flow ratesand significantly
lower residual urinesthan if they were
taking medications. At El Camino Hospital this
laser is on standby 24/7in our Operating Room and
our physicians are ableto use this technology
on last minute noticeand in emergent cases
when necessary.