Early Experiences of the Transurethral Needle Ablation(TUNA) in BPH

Kim, Taehyo; Ahn, Tai Young; Park, Taehan

Abstract

PURPOSE: TUNA is a new minimally invasive treatment modality for the patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia of prostate utilizing low levels of radiofrequency energy. We presented our early experiences of TUNA for the treatment of BPH to evaluate its clinical outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From July 1995 to March 1997, 36 patients were treated with TUNA(15 with manual system, 21 with automatic system). Mean age of the patients was 63.5 years. All patients were evaluated preoperatively with PSA, AUA symptom score, uroflowmetry and transrectal ultrasonography(TRUS). AUA symptom score at 1, 3, 12 month and uroflowmetry at 1, 3 month postoperatively were available for analysis. RESULTS: Mean PSA value was 3.4ng/ml and mean prostate volume by TRUS was 35.5gram preoperatively. Nine out of 36 procedures were performed with local anesthesia. Mean operating time was 45.6 minutes. At postoperative 3 and 12 month, symptom score was improved from 22.0+/-1.5 to 11.7+/-1.6 and 11.0+/-1.9(p<0.05), respectively and maximal flow rate was increased from 11.2+/-0.7ml/sec to 14.4+/-1.5ml/sec at postoperative 3 month(p<0.05). Results have been far better since using automatic system. Complications were observed in one patient with clot retention and in 11 patients with postoperative urinary retention. CONCLUSIONS: TUNA is a simple, safe, efficacious and minimally invasive treatment procedure with short hospital stay, less morbidity for treatment of the patients with BPH. It could also be performed with local anesthesia. We suggest that TUNA would be a new promising treatment modality for BPH.