What is Prostate Laser Surgery?

Prostate Laser Surgery is the modern way of various prostate and urinary symptoms. Enlarged prostate or Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) is largely treated with Prostate Laser Surgery.

A scope is surgically inserted through the patient’s penis into the urethra tube that takes the urine from the bladder. This urethra is surrounded by the prostate gland. Through scope laper, fiber is inserted that removes or shrinks the excess tissues for which the normal urine flow is disrupted.

Types of Prostate Laser Surgery

Excess prostate tissues are either melt away or cut during prostate surgery. In 3 ways this treatment can be done:

Photoselective vaporization of the prostate: The laser light vaporizes or melts away the excess tissues that are shrinking the urinary channel.

Holmium laser ablation of the prostate: In this procedure also, the excess tissues are melted away but it is conducted with a different kind of laser.

Holmium laser enucleation of the prostate:Instead of vaporizing, in this procedure, the extra tissues are cut and the passage of urethra is cleared. For removing the tissues from the body, they are cut into smaller pieces with another device (morcellator).

There are other factors as well that decide which type of surgery is appropriate for whom:

  • Age
  • Medical history
  • Health condition
  • Prostate size
  • Pieces of equipments available

Why Prostate Surgery is needed?

Prostate enlargement patient come with a number of symptoms like:

  • Urgent and frequent need to urinate
  • Slow urination
  • Stopping and starting repetitively while urinating
  • Difficulty in starting the urination
  • Urinary tract infections
  • Multiple times urination at night
  • Not completely emptying the bladder
  • Straining to Void

How to prepare for Prostate Laser Surgery?

Medications: Let your doctor know all the prescribed medicines and other supplements that you take both for this complication and other problems. Medicines like warfarin, clopidogrel, aspririn or other blood thinner  should especially be reported.

Fasting: Generally, for Prostate Laser Surgery, the patient is advised to not to take any food after midnight prior to the OT date.

Post OP Activity Restrictions: The patient is generally restricted to do any heavy work at least 2 weeks after the surgery.

Other arrangements: Make all the arrangements at your home and office according to the days of hospital-stay. For laser surgery, it generally does not take more than 1-2 days.

Why PLS is a better choice than traditional TURP and open prostatectomy?

Lesser blood loss: Laser surgery can be done with minimal to no blood loss where the traditional method of surgery causes relatively more blood loss. This is a problem especially who take blood-thinning medicines.

Shorter hospital stay: BPH treatment or any other Prostate Laser Surgery requires a maximum night of hospital stay and sometimes it is done as day care treatment as well.

Quick and smooth recovery: Without any doubt, recovering from a Prostate Laser surgery is way quicker than any traditional prostate surgery methods.

The lesser need of a catheter: Every type of Prostate surgery requires a catheter to take out the urine from the bladder just immediate the surgery. But with laser surgery, the catheter is required for less time.

Immediate results: With medications, enlarged prostate recovery can take months to show result where with Prostate Laser Surgery, the improvement is shown immediately.

Risks of Prostatectomy, Prostate Cancer Surgery, Prostatitis, and other Prostate Laser Surgery:

Though laser surgery is considered the safest kind of procedure for any gland treatment there are few risks associated with all of the procedures. Maximum of the risks are short-term and reversible.

Difficulty urinating (temporary): Immediate after the operation, a catheter will be inserted into the patient’s penis to carry the urine from the bladder.

Urinary tract infection: Though not so common in laser treatments, Indwelling catheter-usage can cause Urinary tract infection. The cure is generally done with antibiotics.

Dry orgasm: Retrograde Ejaculation can be a side effect of Prostate laser surgery where during the sexual climax, the released semen enters the bladder instead of releasing from the penis. Though this is not directly harmful to the patient’s health, this can actually decrease the chance of fatherhood, which is not much concerned as per this age.

Stricture of the urethra: Sometime urethral is narrow so the internal scar is created during surgery that can shrink or block the urine flow is called the stricture of the urethra and requires special treatment.

Erectile dysfunction: Though this risk is very faint with laser treatment, sometimes laser surgery too can cause erectile dysfunction.

Retreatment and follow-up treatment:All the prostate tissues that are hindering the normal urine flow may not be removed for the first time. Therefore, repetitive follow-up treatments are required. Also, glands can have re-growth. But, patients who are treated with ‘Holmium Laser Enucleation of the Prostate’ do not face the problem as the entire portion that can block urine flow is removed from the body.

Results of Prostate Laser Surgery than traditional TURP and open prostatectomy are often more long-lasting and comes with lesser side effects. If the patient notices any aggravation of any of the symptoms after surgery, he needs to seek medical help immediately.