Abstract
The concept of therapeutic hyperthermia is by no means new, but interest in it has revived recently. To compete with transurethral prostatic resection, a treatment would have to be safer, less expensive and complicated, and possible in a single session, standards initial prostate hyperthermia techniques have not met. The authors have studied the value of exposure of tissue to 80° to 90°C for 15 to 60 minutes by heated balloons or a 7F computer-controlled heat-emitting catheter that are centered in the prostatic urethra fluoroscopically. The balloon was abandoned after early trials. After resolution of inflammation, re-epithelialization, widening of the prostatic urethra, atrophy of the periurethral prostatic glands, and maintenance of normal gland architecture were seen histologica11y in animal trials.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.