Surgeons hail new prostate procedure

A FIVE-MINUTE steam treatment for enlarged prostates was last night being hailed as a breakthrough by NHS surgeons following tests on British patients.

The simple procedure was found to shrink glands on average by 36 per cent – but while the result is similar to other treatments, it has far fewer side effects.

The process, conducted by surgeons at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London and Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on 150 men, involves injecting an enlarged prostate with jets of steam without the need for surgery.

There are several surgical procedures currently available and while effective, they can lead to loss of sexual function, bleeding and incontinence, with patients kept in hospital for days.

It was reported last night that health watchdogs were ready to give it the green light for use in the NHS.

Two million men in Britain have been diagnosed with an enlarged prostate. However, half of all men over the age of 50, and 60 per cent of those over 60, are thought to have it, studies have suggested.

The steam treatment, called Rezum, involves having steam injected at 1cm intervals, killing enough prostate tissue to shrink the enlarged gland.

Professor Hashim Ahmed, a consultant urological surgeon at Imperial, said other hospitals were poised to roll out the treatment as soon as they were given the go-ahead from Nice, the health watchdog. “It frees up huge NHS resources because you need much less theatre time,” he told the

Daily Mail. “You are also opening up tens of thousands of days of bed occupation around the country.”