What is benign prostatic hyperplasia?
Benign prostatic hyperplasia is the most common pathology in men over 50 years of age. More than a pathology it is an evolution of what is the natural life of any man, being the indiscriminate growth of the prostate gland, especially in the central area. This produces, normally, an obstruction to the flow.
It has a series of symptoms that the patient develops and worsens until he needs treatment, either medical or surgical, to try to unblock or at least alleviate the symptoms it produces. Practically 80% of men will suffer from it, in fact 100% of men will develop it, another thing is that we suffer from it, that is to say that we have symptoms derived from this growth.
Is there any relationship between benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer?
In principle, these are two pathologies that have nothing to do with each other. As its name indicates, it is true that it develops in the prostate, but many times people think that the prostate problem usually ends in cancer and this is not true.
It is also true that the vast majority of male patients over 50 years of age will develop benign hyperplasia but only 10% of them will develop prostate cancer. It is easier for prostate cancer to appear if there is a family history, this being the only relationship.
We should try to demystify the concept of prostate screening, control of benign prostatic hyperplasia, symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia, treatment (either medical or surgical) of benign prostatic hyperplasia… of the treatments and diagnosis of prostate cancer. The most important thing in the screening or in the control that we are doing to all men from a certain age, from 45 years of age if it is a patient with a family history of prostate cancer, or in the general population, what interests us above all is the diagnosis of prostate cancer, that is to say, early diagnosis. This usually also includes screening for benign prostatic hyperplasia, so that any man over the age of 50 can have both benign growth and the risk of cancer under control.
Innovations in benign prostatic hyperplasia treatment
In the last 5-10 years, treatment has changed a lot, especially in diagnosis and in medical and surgical treatment. This is mainly due to new technologies and minimally invasive surgery. For example, the application of lasers has greatly improved.
The Holmium laser, which is currently the most complete laser for the treatment of hyperplasia, and the development of new techniques such as enucleation or Holep, allow us to perform surgeries with minimal aggression, minimal hospitalization, very fast recovery, minimal bleeding and minimal complications. If we compare it with traditional surgeries, we are talking about 90 or more than 90% less, making it possible for practically any patient to undergo surgery. What is being done today is an earlier diagnosis of the symptomatology, to try to offer a better quality of life before the progressive worsening of the disease.
The Holmium laser is currently the main technique that will remain, according to all clinical guidelines, as the technique to be performed by any specialist in Urology.