Objective: To investigate patient satisfaction after holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) in a prospective study.
Subjects and methods: From May 2012 to December 2014, 397 patients underwent HoLEP by a single surgeon and enrolled in our prospective registry. Baseline data included age, PSA, transrectal ultrasonography, the international prostate symptom score (IPSS), and overactive bladder symptom score (OABSS). Subjective assessment of surgical outcomes was performed at 6 months postoperatively using self-administered questionnaires consisting of 'satisfaction with treatment question' (STQ), 'overall response assessment' (ORA), and 'willingness to undergo surgery question' (WSQ).
Results: A total of 331 patients (mean age 69.6±7.0 years) were included in the analysis. Mean total prostate volume was 69.5 (±42.2) ml. Mean preoperative IPSS score was 18.5 (±7.8). The STQ showed that most patients (91.8%) were satisfied after the surgery. Only 11 (3.3%) patients responded with 'dissatisfied', and no patients replied with 'very dissatisfied'. The WSQ showed that 311 (94.0%) patients were willing to undergo the surgery again if they had to reconsider the surgical decision. The ORA showed that all patients (99.4%) experienced an improvement. When compared with satisfied patients, neutral/dissatisfied patients had lower IPSS quality of life scores (2.7 vs. 0.9, p<0.001), higher IPSS voiding symptom scores (7.0 vs. 1.4, p<0.001), and more frequent episodes of urgency urinary incontinence in OABSS (1.0 vs. 0.3, p = 0.017) at 6 months postoperatively.
Conclusions: The overall level of satisfaction after HoLEP was high. The most common reason for dissatisfaction was the occurrence of urgency urinary incontinence after the surgery.