Trust is first in London to perform pioneering prostate treatment
A consultant at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust will be one of the first to perform a new treatment today (Thursday 3 August) which could improve the lives of thousands of men who are living with the effects of an enlarged prostate.
The new technique, which will be performed by Professor Hashim Ahmed at Charing Cross Hospital, aims to replace a procedure which takes over an hour and includes 2-3 days of hospital stay with a 10-15 minute procedure under sedation/local anaesthetic with patients able to go home that same day.
Symptoms of an enlarged prostate can include needing to visit the toilet more frequently and with more urgency and experiencing difficulty emptying your bladder. The condition affects 1 in 3 men over the age of 50. Thousands of men have the traditional operation, called a transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) by electrocautery or laser every year.
The new procedure, which is called Rezum Water Vapour, injects small amounts of steam into the prostate. The steaming process permeates throughout the tissue which then allows the gland to shrink as it repairs itself, relieving men of symptoms.
This is the first time the procedure will be performed in London and only the second time in the UK.
Professor Hashim Ahmed said: “It’s great that we can now offer a treatment which is less invasive and carries less side effects for our patients.
“This treatment will not only be a better alternative for men facing a longer procedure with added recovery time but we can also offer to those who are on life-long medication who opted not to have surgery because they were worried about side effects of traditional surgery.”
