Volume determinations of the whole prostate and of adenomas by transrectal ultrasound in patients with clinically benign prostatic hyperplasia: correlation of resected weight, blood loss and duration of operation.

OBJECTIVE

To study whether transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) volume determinations of the whole prostate and of the adenomas alone correlate to resected weight, operation time and blood loss in patients operated upon with transurethral resection of the prostate because of presumed benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The whole prostate and the transition zone, which corresponds to the adenomas, were measured separately in 159 patients with presumed BPH, pre-operatively and 4 months post-operatively.

RESULTS

The transition zone volume correlated well with the resected weight (r = 0.91; P < 0.0001), the blood loss (r = 0.67; P < 0.0001) and the operation time (r = 0.67; P < 0.0001). Four months post-operatively a reduction of the total prostate volume was recorded which corresponded well with the resected weight (r = 0.91; P < 0.0001).

CONCLUSION

TRUS with high resolution 7 MHz probes successfully estimated the size of the whole prostate and that of the adenomas alone. The transition zone volume predicted the expected resection weight of adenomas and to some extent the duration of the operation and the blood loss. These calculations may be used for more accurate pre-operative planning. Together with its superior detection rate for prostate cancer, TRUS seems to be a powerful tool in the pre-operative morphological assessment of patients with prostatism.