Nanavati Hospital

Hello,

I am Doctor Avanish Arora. I am a senior consultant urologist and uro-oncosurgeon. I treat benign and cancerous condition of kidney, bladder, prostate, testis, penis and adrenals. Today I am going to talk about a very common condition affecting men more than 55 years of age, benign enlargement of the prostate. Most men beyond 55 years of age develop some or other urinary symptoms and most of this can be attributable to the enlargement of the prostate. The symptoms for this condition typically can be one or many of the following, either one feels like passing urine more often during the day or having to go more often during the night to pass urine, having an uncontrollable urge to pass urine and having to rush to the bathroom, having a poor stream of urine, having uninterrupted stream of urine, straining to pass urine or having a sense of incomplete emptying of your bladder. Most of these conditions can be treated medically and this requires immediate attention.

One needs to go see the urologist immediately and needs to undergo thorough medical examination including per rectal examination and ultrasound of the kidney, ureter, bladder region and a blood test called the PSA, which is prostate specific antigen to rule out cancer in the prostate. Now as I mentioned earlier the treatment of this condition is usually medical, almost 80% of the cases can be totally cured with medical therapy, which may or may not have to be continued for life.

The subset of patients who do not respond to medical management can be treated very well using non-invasive endoscopy treatments. Currently the safest and most effective endoscopy treatment include bipolar or saline resection or enucleation of the prostate or holmium laser enucleation of the prostate. Now this is non-invasive way which is scarless, painless, bloodless and very safe. This entails 1 to 2 days of hospitalization and immediate return to activities. All men beyond 50 years of age should undergo the blood test of PSA. This is to rule of cancer in prostate. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men it affects more than 20% of patients of the population beyond 75 years of age.

Prostate cancer can be treated very effectively if there is early detection and prompt treatment. Treatment of prostate cancer can be done by various ways now we have the robotic surgery and laparoscopic surgery to surgically treat prostate cancer, which is confined to the prostate which is very effective and precise or the patients can also be offered radiation therapy or medical management based on the stage of the disease and condition of the patient. I urge all of you to generate prostate health awareness for the benefit of yourself and for your near and dear ones. Stay prostate healthy, see your urologist today.

Thank you