Minimally invasive 2-μm laser therapy for benign prostatic hyperplasia

  Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) is the most common benign disease causing urinary disorders in middle-aged and elderly men, usually occurring after the age of 40, with a prevalence of greater than 50% at age 60 and up to 83% at age 80. With the accelerated aging of our society, BPH has become one of the most common diseases in urological clinical practice, bringing a heavy economic burden to patients and society.  Clinically, the main measures for treating BPH include watchful waiting, pharmacotherapy, surgery and minimally invasive intracavitary therapy. Currently, transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) is still the “gold standard” clinical treatment for BPH. However, this procedure is mainly used for BPH patients with prostate volume below 80 ml and has many complications, such as dilutional hyponatremia and volume expansion due to excessive absorption of flushing fluid, retrograde ejaculation, bladder neck contracture, urinary incontinence, and urethral stricture. With the continuous progress of various minimally invasive techniques (such as transurethral plasma bipolar electrosurgery, transurethral prostate electrification and transurethral laser surgery) in the field of urology, the proportion of clinical applications of TURP has decreased in recent years.  With the rapid development of laser technology, several laser techniques have been applied to BPH treatment. Compared with conventional scalpel, laser surgery has less blood loss and is expected to overcome many problems faced during the clinical treatment of BPH. At present, the light sources mainly include holmium laser, green laser and 2μm laser. Among them, the 2μm laser has strong tissue vaporization and cutting ability, with continuity, high power and strong selectivity of working area (the penetration of cutting surface is only between 2 microns), so it has many advantages of green laser “vaporization” and holmium laser “cutting” technology. It has many advantages of green laser “vaporization” and holmium laser “cutting” technology, and has a good prospect in clinical treatment of BPH.  The 2 μm laser is a continuous laser produced by the excitation of the trace element yttrium-malumium-garnet (thulium), which is available at 1.91 μm and 2.01 μm, commonly referred to as the 2 μm laser. The laser of this wavelength has an energy absorption peak close to that of water, which causes the water in the tissue to change from liquid to gas instantaneously, thus producing effective vaporization, cutting and coagulation effects. The depth of tissue cut is 2mm and the thickness of the coagulation layer is 1mm without causing severe tissue necrosis and edema. The 2 μm laser can coagulate and seal the blood vessels at the cut site during prostate excision, thus greatly reducing the amount of bleeding during the procedure and also reducing the absorption of flushing fluid, effectively improving the safety of this surgical technique.  From the above study, it is easy to see that the 2 μm laser surgery has significant differences from the traditional surgical method in the treatment of BPH. During surgery, the use of high-energy lasers can achieve excellent intraoperative hemostasis while vaporizing and cutting prostate tissue, thereby enhancing the clarity of the surgical field and reducing the need for blood transfusion during surgery. In addition, the greatest advantage of 2 μm laser surgery is its clear efficacy and low surgical risk, which can effectively reduce the occurrence of various potential complications and save social health resources, improving the quality of work and life of patients. However, it is worth discussing that although 2 μm laser surgery has natural advantages over TURP surgery in terms of overcoming intraoperative bleeding symptoms and postoperative complications, some studies have also pointed out that 2 μm laser surgery does not completely avoid some long-term complications, for example, one study reported that a certain percentage (3.57%) of patients with BPH treated with 2 μm laser surgery patients will experience some degree of bladder neck contracture, etc. On the other hand, the sequence and details of surgical excision for BPH with the 2 μm laser vary from center to center, and a standardized procedure has not yet been developed.