Prostatic heat treatments for urinary outflow obstruction.

A nonrandomized pilot study was done of 139 patients with symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia treated with 3 prostatic heating devices. Of the patients 19 underwent transrectal hyperthermia with the Biodan Prostathermer and in 15 the Primus Prostate Machine was used. At 2 1/2 years 7 of 19 patients (37%) patients in the Prostathermer group and 6 of 15 (40%) in the Primus group had adequate sustained improvement and had not undergone further treatment. At 1 year 55 of 100 patients (55%) treated with the Thermex-II section transurethral thermotherapy unit had a satisfactory result, with 40 (40%) having undergone transurethral resection of the prostate. The number of patients who failed therapy increased with each followup. Analysis of pretreatment parameters, including patient age, prostate size, peak urinary flow rate, post-void residual urine volume and symptom score, did not predict a successful outcome. Although these devices have minimal effect on peak urinary flow rate, a subset of patients enjoy symptomatic improvement.