Holmium laser enucleation, a new method for treating prostate enlargement

  Benign prostatic hyperplasia is the most common disease in elderly men. Early symptoms are mostly increased nighttime urination, waiting to urinate, prolonged total time to urinate, further development to difficult urination, thin urine line, not far away, dripping, incontinence and urinary retention can occur when the condition is serious, if not properly treated, it can eventually develop to renal failure and endanger life.  For more than a decade, medications for prostate enlargement have made great strides, allowing most patients to have their condition controlled and their quality of life improved. However, when BPH is combined with complications such as hydronephrosis, urinary retention, infection, and bladder stones, surgical treatment remains the only effective treatment. From the 1980s, transurethral resection of the prostate for prostatic hyperplasia has been applied in China, but the technique suffers from incomplete resection, intraoperative and postoperative bleeding, and electrodesiccation syndrome, especially in some high-risk and elderly patients, such as those with combined hypertension, heart disease, lung disease, cerebrovascular disease, and diabetes, who often cannot undergo surgery because of the high surgical risk. If a pacemaker is installed in patients with heart disease, it is even more of a contraindication to surgery.  Holmium laser prostate enucleation combines the advantages of high-tech technology and anatomical enucleation, which can completely prostate, but also has less bleeding, no complications such as electrodes syndrome, and is considered the most promising method for treating prostate enlargement, a micro-innovative technology worth developing and promoting, and is expected to replace the classic electrodes surgery, raising the level of surgical treatment to a new level, making more patients get treated, especially This will allow more patients to be treated, especially those who were previously considered inoperable due to their advanced age and high risk, allowing these patients to get rid of their urethra and return to normal life and work.  The complete transurethral resection of the enlarged prostate has always been the desire of urologists and patients. In the past 10 years, transurethral holmium laser prostatectomy and transurethral plasma prostatectomy, which can completely remove the enlarged gland, have been introduced and successfully carried out in some centers around the world, but they are only available as two alternative surgical procedures for the treatment of BPH due to long learning cycles or certain technical difficulties, and are not widely available. With the strong support of the hospital leadership, the Department of Urology of Shanghai Jiuxin Hospital has taken the lead in carrying out these two procedures, and after several years of technical research and experience, they have been skillfully applied to the clinical treatment of prostate enlargement, relieving the pain of a large number of patients and improving the quality of life of these patients.  Holmium laser prostate enucleation, since its successful implementation in New Zealand in 1995, has been put into clinical use in about 30 hospitals around the world. The laser works on the principle that human tissue contains a lot of water, and when the holmium laser comes into contact with the tissue the energy is immediately absorbed by the surface tissue, thus making the holmium laser have excellent cutting and tissue removal capabilities. holmium laser treatment for prostate enlargement is to bring the energy of the holmium laser into the treatment site through the urethra by means of soft optical fibers, using the laser fibers to cut through the entire prostate gland and pluck out the enlarged tissue intact from the envelope The entire prostate gland is incised with the laser fiber, the hyperplastic tissue is removed from the envelope, the whole piece is removed into the bladder, the tissue is reduced to a smaller size with an intracavitary tissue crusher, and the tissue is finally sucked out of the body through the urethra, and the whole process is performed under a monitor. Holmium laser passes through the lumen of the prostatectomy mirror through a slim electrode and emits a laser beam with more powerful function than high-frequency current and ordinary laser power, which can better coagulate the tiny blood vessels when removing the prostate. The whole cutting process bleeds less than all other techniques, even only a few milliliters to a dozen milliliters, and the field of view is clearer, and the holmium laser beam has minimal damage to the peripheral tissues, with a depth of only 0.2 mm, which greatly reduces the damage to the The holmium laser beam causes minimal damage to the peripheral tissues, with a depth of only 0.2 mm, greatly reducing the chance of damage to the deep penile erectile nerves and important blood vessels in the posterior part of the prostate. Patients have less chance of urinary frequency, urinary urgency, impotence and retrograde ejaculation after the procedure. The coagulation ability of the laser closes the venous channels and prevents the absorption of the irrigation fluid, so no hyponatremia or TUR syndrome occurs. The long-term results abroad show that holmium laser prostate enucleation is safer than electrodesiccation, and even for patients whose prostate is too large or who cannot undergo electrodesiccation for other reasons, holmium laser prostate enucleation shows its superiority and safety: the effectiveness and safety of complete removal of the enlarged gland, especially for patients with large prostates or advanced prostates, has been confirmed by the urological community, and holmium The holmium laser has shown good clinical promise and is considered to be the best surgical method available.  In addition, Holmium laser technology has the advantages of short operation time, no incision in the abdomen, less trauma, less bleeding, faster recovery, fewer complications, and significant efficacy compared to traditional open surgery for the treatment of various urological disorders. No blood transfusion is needed during and after the operation, and the average postoperative retention time of the urinary catheter is 3-6 days and the average hospital stay is one week, which greatly reduces the patient’s pain. Although this technology is currently limited to individual hospital applications, it is believed that it will be widely accepted and promoted in the near future for the benefit of the majority of patients.