The transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) has long been the gold standard of any technologies or procedures devised to treat BPH. Unfortunately, the procedure was historically associated with significant bleeding and burning, resulting in poor visualization that all too often was followed by innacurate resection and subsequent possibility of incontinence.
However, in today’s medical arena, the technological advances in the instrumentation and anatomical understanding have made the TURP a very reliable procedure that carries the highest success rate and an extremely low complication rate. The hospitalization consists of an overnight (23 hour) stay for observation and bladder irrigation. The improvement of symptoms can last, in many cases, over 15 years. The complication of incontinence should be about 1% or less.