Local thermotherapy of the benign prostate: a 1-year follow-up.

Local hyperthermia to the prostate has initially been found to be of considerable beneficial value in cancer of the gland and later also in benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and in chronic prostatitis. The Prostathermer has been especially developed and used for this purpose. 124 patients with BPH, who have been treated by this method, were reevaluated after 1 year. This thermotherapy was well tolerated, and no noticeable complications were encountered. A sustained definite improvement in objective and subjective obstructive symptoms and signs was seen in 51% of the cases. Such definite and persistent improvement was best obtained when treatments were performed twice weekly for 60 min over a period of 3 weeks. Those patients with the more severe obstructive symptoms fared best. A full explanation for the effectiveness of this treatment of BPH has yet to be found. Although local hyperthermia cannot, at this stage, be considered as a radical form of treatment of BPH, it may offer definite relief to about 50% of the cases, particularly to those unwilling or unsuitable for surgery.