Rezium treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia
Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia-Treatment with Rezum
Rezum is an innovative, valuable tool in treating benign prostatic hyperplasia, a prevalent disease that affects adult men after forty.
Usually, in the case of prostatic hyperplasia, the most common treatment is medical. It consists of administering drugs of the alpha-lytic class, such as alfuzosin, silodosin, doxazosin, and tamsulosin. These drugs can reduce the degree of muscle contraction around the urethra or, more precisely, in the bladder neck, thereby inducing an improvement in the bladder turning function.
How was REZUM therapy born?
The new non-invasive "Convective Water Vapor Energy" technique with the aid of the Rezum instrument was developed in the United States to treat small tumour lesions located within the prostate gland. Later, it made its way to the United States and northern Europe as an alternative way to treat some cases of benign prostatic hyperplasia.
REZUM's Operation
Rezum therapy can reduce prostate volume by about 40%. The method injects nebulized vapour into the prostate gland, introduced with a particular disposable probe, under vision inside the prostatic urethral tract. The therapeutic effect is not immediate. Only a few weeks after treatment, the gland decreases in volume, and the classic obstructive symptoms typical of benign prostatic hyperplasia, such as difficulty urinating, drop significantly. Typically, at least three months are required for definitive stabilization.
Now let's analyse the real advantages of this treatment, which takes a few minutes in an outpatient or day-hospital regime, being:
- The procedure is quick; it takes about 15 minutes in total.
- General anaesthesia is not required; however, mild sedation is sufficient.
- No surgical incisions are required.
Following the benign prostatic hyperplasia treatments using REZUM, there are no sexual alterations, such as retrograde ejaculation or erectile dysfunction. This is precise because of the selectivity of the treatment, which acts only locally and does not lead to thermal radiation-and therefore lesions-of the peripheral nervous structures.
As reported by the European guidelines in Urology, REZUM is currently the method that, more than any other, allows for the preservation of both erective and ejaculatory functionality.
Who should get the REZUM Treatment?
Treatment with Rezum is indicated for patients mostly with medium or small prostate volume who are not suffering from highly severe symptoms or inflammation of the lower urinary tract.
It is also ideal for all those who do not want or cannot follow medical therapy due to side effects or for patients who cannot take tablets (such as alpha-lyrics), which are known to induce lowering of blood pressure up to syncopal episodes, as well as induce retrograde ejaculation. REZUM should also be used to treat people with acute urinary retention who have an indwelling bladder catheter and are waiting for surgery.
Treatment with Rezum is highly tolerable and exposes patients to very low complications, mainly of an irritative type, rapidly regressing in the short/medium term. It is also possibly repeatable.
