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1994.02.08 : Treatment for Enlarged Prostate

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                   Public Health Service
Tuesday, Feb. 8, 1994                   Contact: 301/594-1364
                                        Bob Griffin ext. 169
                                        Bob Isquith ext. 173
                                        Harriett Bennett ext.174 

     Men with enlarged prostates should have the final say when it
comes to deciding how to treat their symptoms, according to new
guidelines for both patients and physicians released today by the
Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, a part of HHS' Public
Health Service.

     Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) -- enlargement of the
prostate -- is a common condition in older men, causing frequent
and urgent urination, which may disturb sleep, produce a sensation
that the bladder never quite empties, and cause difficulty starting
to urinate.  The condition, which is the focus of the guidelines,
is not related to cancer of the prostate.

     The guidelines were developed by a private-sector panel of
leading urologists and other medical experts.  The panel said an
enlarged prostate by itself does not necessarily require surgery.
The panel urged doctors to make sure patients understand that
symptoms associated with enlargement of the prostate progress at
different rates and that some men never have more than mild or
moderate symptoms.

     The panel also said physicians should focus more on their
patients' symptoms and how much they trouble them, rather than on
test results, and should inform their patients of all treatment
options, along with the benefits and risks of each option. 

     Philip R. Lee, M.D., HHS assistant secretary for health and
director of the Public Health Service, said, "Approximately 221,000
transurethral resections of the prostate, a common type of
prostatectomy, were performed in 1992 to relieve symptoms or treat
the serious, but less frequently occurring complications of the
disease, such as inability to urinate.  The guidelines will be
helpful to the urologic surgeon, to physicians referring patients,
to urologists and to patients, who must ultimately decide what type
of treatment is best for them."  

     According to HHS' Health Care Financing Administration,
prostatectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures among
Medicare patients.