Minimally invasive treatment for lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia. Our initial experience with Urolift® under local anaesthesia and sedation

Abstract Introduction The treatment for lower urinary tract symptoms secondary to benign prostatic hyperplasia with the Urolift® system has been carried out since 2005 with good results in the medium term. In this work, we present our experience performing this technique under local anaesthesia and sedation in 2 Spanish centres. Material and methods A prospective study was conducted with 20 patients treated with Urolift® under local anaesthesia and sedation between April 2017 and April 2018. The anaesthesia protocol consisted in the placement of 2 lubricants with cold lidocaine (the first one, 10 min before the intervention, and the second one, just before introducing the cystoscopy). A prostate block (similar to the one employed in prostate biopsies) was administered to one third of the patients and 1 mg of intravenous midazolam was added if required during the procedure. Our primary objective is to evaluate the tolerability of this procedure under local anaesthesia using the validated Visual Analogue Scale measurement instrument. Results The procedure has been performed under the same anaesthetic protocol to 20 patients from 2 different centres. The average pain scores on the Visual Analogue Scale were 1.37 for the cystoscopy procedure and 1.19 for the placement of the implants. When asked whether the pain sensations had been higher, lower or the same during the procedure or at the preoperative cystoscopy, only 18% of the patients responded it was higher. In all cases there was a good tolerance to the procedure, and changes to the anaesthesia protocols were never required. Conclusions We consider that the Urolift® system under local anaesthesia and sedation is a well-tolerated, safe and effective method for the treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms secondary to benign prostatic hyperplasia.