A COMPARISON OF TRANSURETHRAL AND TRANSRECTAL MICROWAVE HYPERTHERMIA IN POOR SURGICAL RISK BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERPLASIA PATIENTS

From 1987 to 1989, 36 poor surgical risk patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) were treated with transrectal or transurethral microwave hyperthermia. Most of the 36 patients treated (85%) had severe signs and symptoms of urinary outflow obstruction. Of the patients 22 (61%) underwent transrectal and 14 (39%) underwent transurethral hyperthermia. Followup ranged from 10 to 28 months (mean 19 months) for the transrectal hyperthermia group and 7 to 16 months (mean 10 months) for the transurethral hyperthermia group. The patients were given 6 hyperthermia sessions of 30 minutes each with the temperature controlled on the rectal or urethral surface at 45C. Hyperthermia was well tolerated with mild acute toxicity and no late complications were observed. In the important subjective and objective parameters, major improvement was noted more frequently in the 14 transurethral than in the 22 transrectal hyperthermia treated patients (p < 0.05). The Food and Drug Administration severity score, prostate volume, post-voiding residual volume and urethral flow showed substantial improvement in 79, 86, 79 and 79%, respectively, of the 14 transurethral hyperthermia treated patients compared to 41, 45, 82 and 82%, respectively, for the 22 transrectal hyperthermia treated patients. A prospective randomized trial comparing transrectal and transurethral hyperthermia is required to define the role of each treatment mode in patients with BPH.