Everything you need to know about Rezum
18 February 2019
Consultant Urologist, Mr Andrew Ballaro talks about the new treatment, Rezum.
What is BPH?
Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) is the medical term for an enlarged prostate causing urinary symptoms, by obstructing the flow of urine from the bladder.
These symptoms include:
- Passing urine more often than normal
- Finding it difficult to start passing urine
- Finding there is a longer than normal wait for the stream of urine to begin
- A weak urinary flow
- Dribbling at the end of the stream
- An intermittent stop-start stream
- Having to get up at night to pass urine
- Feeling an urgent need to pass urine that is difficult to defer
Treatment for BPH
Conventional treatment for BPH includes medications to relax or reduce the prostate size which work well in some instances, however have to be taken permanently and can have side effects. Alternatively, surgery to remove the obstructing prostate tissue by resecting it using an electrical wire (TURP) or a laser (HOLEP).
What is Rezum?
Rezum is a new minimally invasive treatment recently approved for the treatment of BPH. It involves injecting steam into the obstructing prostate from inside the urethra (tube draining urine form the bladder). The steam causes shrinkage of the prostate and this significantly reduces the obstruction and improves urinary symptoms. It is performed under either a short general anaesthetic or local anaesthetic with no incisions and can also be used in patients with catheters because of urinary retention.
What are the advantages of Rezum?
The major advantage of Rezum over conventional techniques is that it does not involve surgical removal of large amounts of prostate tissue, and as a result it does not cause heavy blood loss and complications. In addition, Rezum does not cause loss of ejaculation (dry orgasm and infertility) which is routine after other operations. It is much shorter than TURP or HOLEP and can usually be performed as a day-case.
Rezum treatment significantly improves urinary symptoms and preserves sexual function, and is a new alternative to medication and conventional surgery for BPH.
Consultant Urologist, Mr Andrew Ballaro currently performs Rezum treatment at Spire Hartswood Hospital. He holds regular clinics here on Monday evenings, Tuesday evenings, Friday mornings.
For more information or to book an appointment with Mr Ballaro, contact us on 01277 266 761.