Abstract
An ageing general population, increase in average life span and prevailing benign prostatic hypertrophy bring an increasing number of elderly men to surgery for cervico-urethral obstruction. Given the small but significant morbidity of TURP, recently new mini-invasive techniques have been introduced for BPH, laser therapy being the most popular. The authors report on the different methods for delivering laser energy to the prostate, discussing the benefits and defects. They also present their personal experience with 44 patients aged over 75 years subjected to Nd:YAG laser prostatectomy from 1992 until today. In these patients transurethral laser evaporation, as suggested by Narayan and al., produced significant symptomatic and clinical results with low morbidity and invasiveness. The authors therefore believe that this kind of therapy may improve management of the elderly patient with BPH.
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