Prostate enlargement Treatment
PROSTATE ENLARGEMENT TREATMENT
The degree of success of the various prostate enlargement treatments depends on:
(a) Improvement in the flow of urine
(b) Decrease in the number of times the patient has to pass urine
Statistics from various health care institutions shows that, overall, surgical treatment has had a better success rate than purely medical treatment.
The medical prostate enlargement treatments include:
(a) Watchful waiting in which, periodically, a careful examination of the patient is carried out to monitor the health of the prostate without intervening in any manner. This approach is normally opted for by patients suffering from a mild or moderate version of the condition since almost 33-35% of these cases clear up themselves.
Prostate enlargement Treatment
(b) Alpha blockers: This is another prostrate enlargement treatment in which a family of drugs (called the alpha blockers) are administered to the patient. These drugs block the command impulses from certain fibers of the nervous system, thus inhibiting the contraction of the smooth muscles around the neck of the bladder and improving the flow of urine.
(c) Finasteride This medication reduces the production levels of DHT, which is thought to cause prostate enlargement, by inhibiting a specific enzyme (5-alpha reductase). This prostrate enlargement treatment helps the prostate gland to shrink back to its orignal size. In some case, it may be more beneficial to use a combination of an alph-blocker and finasteride.
The following prostate enlargement treatments depend on a surgical procedure:
(a) Trans-Urethral Incision of the Prostate (TUIP): In this surgical procedure, a few cuts are made in the bladder neck and the prostate gland through the urethra, thus widening it. In this procedure, no tissue is removed from the prostate or the bladder. TUIP is believed to prevent retrograde ejaculation (a disorder in which the semen is expelled into the bladder) that is sometimes a by-product of prostate removal.
(b) Trans-Urethral Resection of the Prostate (TURP) This is a widely used surgical prostate enlargement treatment. In this procedure, a resectoscope in inserted via the urethral opening of the penis and guided to the area of constriction. A wire loop, which is a part of the resectoscope is used to cut the tissue surrounding the urethra. The blood vessels in the area are cauterized while a controlled water jet is used to flush the cut pieces of the prostate tissue into the bladder from where it is excreted.
(c) Open Prostatectomy This surgical procedure for prostate enlargement treatment involves the surgical excision of the entire prostate or a portion of it. This is used when it is not possible to use a trans-urethral procedure usually because the prostate is very enlarged or if the bladder wall has been damaged and will require to be repaired.
Open prostatectomy is perhaps the only prostate enlargement treatment that provides relief to almost 100% of patients undergoing it.