Prostate Enlargement/BPH Health Center

If you have difficulty urinating because of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), you probably will not need surgery unless you:

• Cannot urinate. If you cannot urinate, you will need catheterization. In catheterization, a tube is passed up the penis into the bladder and urine is drained. Half of these men will be able to urinate again after catheterization. Those who do not improve may need surgery.
• Have a partial blockage in your urethra that is causing repeated urinary tract infections, bladder stones, or bladder damage.
• You have blood in your urine that is not getting better and is causing other problems such as clots that make it hard to urinate.
• Have kidney damage.

If you have no complications but have symptoms that bother you or if other treatment has not worked, you may choose to have surgery. In this case, think about:

• How bad your symptoms are.
• How much you expect the surgery to improve your symptoms.
• How you feel about the risk of developing a complication because of the surgery.

For more information on this decision, see:

Enlarged Prostate: Should I Have Surgery?

Surgery Choices

Surgery that does not require an incision through the skin is usually used. The surgical instruments are passed up the urinary opening in the penis to the location of the prostate. This is described as a transurethral surgery of the prostate.

Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) is the surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia that has been studied the most. It is the surgery that is used the most to treat symptoms of BPH. All other surgeries are compared to TURP. In TURP, part of the prostate is removed.

Some of the other surgeries that have been studied and compared to TURP include:

• Transurethral incision of the prostate (TUIP), in which incisions are made in the prostate that cause it to press less on the urethra.
• Laser therapy (transurethral laser coagulation and transurethral laser vaporization), in which a laser is used to make incisions in or remove a portion of the prostate.
• Transurethral microwave therapy (TUMT), in which microwave energy is used to destroy a portion of the prostate through heating.
• Transurethral needle ablation (TUNA), in which a heated needle is used to destroy a portion of the prostate.

In most cases, these treatments have been studied for only a few years, so their long-term effectiveness is not yet known. There are also some other surgeries.

The oldest surgical method to treat BPH is an open prostatectomy, in which an incision is made through the skin to reach the prostate. Doctors use this method less often now, but it is still preferred if the prostate is very large.

What To Think About

Surgery is the most reliable way to relieve symptoms. But surgery may not relieve all your symptoms. And it puts you at risk for certain surgical complications, including erection problems (erectile dysfunction). Other complications include the inability to control the release of urine (urinary incontinence) and ejaculation of semen into the bladder instead of out through the penis (retrograde ejaculation). The complication depends on which type of surgery is used.