Comparison between the coagulation depth of bipolar plasma vaporization of the prostate, bipolar resection of the prostate, and monopolar resection of the prostate

Introduction One of the commonest diseases in elderly men is benign prostatic hyperplasia. Recently, the gold standard for treatment of symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia is transurethral resection of the prostate. Monopolar transurethral resection of the prostate (MTURP) was the first to be used. Bipolar transurethral resection of the prostate (BTURP) and bipolar plasma vaporization of the prostate (BPVP) are mainly used nowadays rather than MTURP, as they proved a similar efficacy to the MTURP with less morbidity. Aim To evaluate the in vivo coagulation depth of the prostatic tissue specimen following BPVP, MTURP, and BTURP. Patients and methods The study was performed on 10 patients, where superficial resection of three different areas was done using the three different techniques in each patient followed by deep biopsy from each area using monopolar resectoscope. These three biopsies were examined using light microscopy. The depths of the coagulation zones were measured at 10 sites at equal intervals in each prostatic chip to assess the coagulation depth in each specimen. Results The coagulation depth induced by BPVP was greater than that of BTURP and it was the least with MTURP. Conclusion In vivo coagulation depth of BPVP is deeper than that of MTURP, which may correlate between the coagulation depth and clinical outcome of postoperative dysuria.