Patients with enlarged prostate may have bothersome symptoms such as frequent need to go to the toilet, waking up many times at night to pass urine, difficulty initiating urination, weak urinary stream and dribbling of urine.
The established treatments for these patients include medication and surgery. You may click on the link below to read about these treatments.
https://www.urospecialist.com.sg/condition/prostate-enlargement/
A good number of patients have their symptoms relieved by medication. However medications only have effect when they are taken long-term. If patients stop taking medication, it is likely that their problem will recur.
Surgical methods such as transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) and greenlight laser prostatectomy are effective, and will remove the need for patients to take long-term medication. However, surgery does affect sexual function, mainly by reducing the patient’s ability to have normal ejaculation. Slight modifications in how we perform these procedures may help to preserve ejaculation to a certain extent.
There are newer surgical treatments for enlarged prostate which involve less prostate removal and may preserve the patient’s ability to have normal ejaculation. These include:
1. Prolieve thermodilation – in which the prostate is dilated and heated with a special catheter.
2. Rezum – in which heated water vapour is injected into the prostate to cause shrinkage of the prostate tissue. Rezum treatment is expected to be available in Singapore in the next couple of months.
At CK Ng Urology, we are exploring these new methods of prostate treatments, in particular for patients who wish to preserve their ejaculatory function after surgery. Do contact us for if you wish to have further discussion.
