Intravenous urography pre prostatectomy: an evaluation of its use.

The pre-operative intravenous urograms of 120 consecutive patients who had prostatectomy for benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) were studied. Of these, seventy eight patients (65%) had normal intravenous urograms (IVU) while 42 patients had abnormal IVU. In this study serum creatinine above 2.0mg/dl and blood urea above 35mg/dl proved valuable indices for possible selection of patients with BPH likely to show significant obstructive disease on IVU. This is not only cost saving, but also reduces unnecessary radiation to the patient.