Therapeutic efficacy and safety of photo-selective vaporization of prostate under local anaesthesia with light sedation

OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the therapeutic efficacy and safety of photo-selective vaporization of the prostate (PVP) under local anaesthesia in patients suffering from lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) secondary to prostatic obstruction. MATERIAL & METHODS: 150 pa tients at the average age of 73 (range 51-92) and a mean/median ASA-score of 2.4/2.0 were included. PVP was performed under either general or spinal anaesthesia in the first 67 patients and under local anaesthesia (peri-prostatic infiltration with 0.25% bupivacain-adrenalin 20 ml) and light sedation in the remaining 83 patients. Surgical variables including asa-score, operative-time, blood-pressure, oxygen saturation, pre- and post-op haemoglobin (Hgb) were recorded. Post operative need for pain medication, catheter-time, and time to pts. hospital discharge were also recorded. RESULTS: No patient with local anaesth esia required conversion to general anaesthesia. The median Hgb fall from pre-op. to post-op. was 0.55g/dl . The median requirement for post-op. catheterization was 2 hrs after local anaesthesia and 9 hrs after general or sp inal anaesthesia. The median time from operation to hospital discharge was 12 hrs in local anaesthesia and 24 hrs for general or spinal anaesthesia (p