Immediate Post Treatment
You can usually go home the same day and in most cases you can resume a normal diet the same evening. The urinary catheter is generally removed 7 to 14 days after the treatment date. You will need to take antibiotics for a few days following the procedure to prevent the occurrence of a urinary infection. After the catheter is removed, you may experience some mild discomfort and bleeding when you start to void. Initially you may also experience more frequent and sometimes a more urgent need to void. During the healing process, you may experience some urine leakage on exertion. Infections with a fever are rare but possible. If a fever develops you should contact your physician immediately.
Follow-up Visits after the Treatment
Three to six months after the treatment, control biopsies are performed under local anesthesia: if they are negative, a regular checking of PSA every three months is sufficient. If a residual cancerous zone is detected (about 10% of the cases), a second AblathermŽ session or another treatment can be conducted 6 months after the initial session. If the biopsies are negative but the PSA rises, a complementary external radiotherapy may be prescribed as the PSA level indicates that the stage of the tumor was underestimated: the cancer is already at regional stage.
How Many Treatments Will I Require?
Approximately ninety percent of patients require only one treatment. If the PSA remains elevated after one treatment, however, or if a biopsy shows residual cancer of the prostate, re-treatment may be necessary in up to 10% of cases. Sometimes tissue around the nerve coming into the prostate is spared on the side of the prostate gland if it has not been found by biopsy to have cancer. If a "nerve sparing" procedure is done, the re-treatment rate is higher. One unique advantage of treatment with AblathermŽ HIFU is the fact that treatment is repeatable: if the nerve sparing procedure does not eliminate the cancer, the procedure can be repeated. Also, if the prostate is too large, two treatments may be necessary or the patient may need to have a TUR-P by a urologist prior to AblathermŽ HIFU.