Archive for March 30, 2009

PROSTATITIS: WHICH KIND DO I HAVE?

This is a key question: Medical treatment varies for each type of prostatitis. Nonbacterial prostatitis, for example, can’t be helped by antimicrobial (bacteria-killing) drugs such as antibiotics. But bacterial prostatitis can’t be treated withoutthem. Therefore, making the right diagnosis is crucial. Acute Bacterial Prostatitis hits suddenly, with the impact of a freight train, and it’s [...]

TRANSURETHRAL INCISION OF THE PROSTATE (TUIP)

What Happens In terms of anesthesia, recovery, and mode of access to the prostate, this procedure is similar to the TUR: An instrument called a resectoscope lights the way for surgeons to see the prostate; the resectoscope is threaded through the urethra, so no skin incision is needed. The difference is that, instead of removing [...]

WHAT MAKES THE PROSTATE GROW?: WHERE GROWTH BEGINS: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

The prostate has five distinct zones. For this chapter, only one of these—the tiniest, an area known as the transition zone—is important. The transition zone makes up only about s percent of the normal prostate gland in young men. Yet this tiny ring of tissue is the source of all the trouble in BPH. It’s [...]

I HAVE CANCER IN MY LYMPH NODES. WHAT DO I DO NOW?

There is cancer in your lymph nodes. Maybe you learned about this before surgery—maybe your surgeon looked at the lymph nodes, found cancer there, and decided not to remove your prostate. Maybe this has come about after surgery—perhaps you have already undergone a radical prostatectomy, and a pathologist has found some cancer in the lymph [...]

INTERSTITIAL BRACHYTHERAPY (IMPLANTING RADIOACTIVE SEEDS) FOR PROSTATE CANCER: WHAT COMPLICATIONS CAN CAUSED

Rectal Problems. Several studies report that from 20 percent to 25 percent of men suffered rectal complications, such as diarrhea, cramps or bleeding; most of these problems were not severe. Men who were treated more aggressively (in one study, men with larger, stage T3 or T4, or C, tumors got radioactive iodine seeds plus external-beam [...]