The relevance of minimum urethral resistance in prostatism.

To determine whether the minimum urethral resistance was useful to identify bladder outlet obstruction in prostatectomy candidates, 46 patients undergoing transurethral resection of the prostate were evaluated by means of detailed symptom analysis, cystoscopy, rectal examination and post-void residual urine determination. In addition, each patient underwent extensive urodynamic testing, the results of which were not made available to the operating urologist as patients were selected for surgery. This prospective, blind evaluation has been completed in 33 and 15 patients 3 and 12 months postoperatively, respectively. A correlation is noted between the minimum urethral resistance, and symptomatology and uroflowmetry but no correlation was identified with prostatic length and the resected prostatic weight. The minimum urethral resistance was not useful in predicting which patients would benefit from transurethral resection of the prostate. It is concluded that symptom analysis generally is a better predictor of the outcome of transurethral resection of the prostate than is minimum urethral resistance.