Purpose: Recurrent urinary retention due to benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH), requiring permanent catheterization, represents one of the most challenging issues geriatric patients can face. Rezūm, as a minimal invasive treatment for BPH, takes the advantage of sterile water vapor injections directly into the prostate. The purpose of this Systematic Review is to report the safety and the efficacy of Rezūm regarding urinary retention relief and permanent catheter withdrawal.
Methods: PubMed, Scopus and Cochrane databases were meticulously screened using the keywords "Rezum", "retention" and "permanent catheter". Only human studies and articles in English were included. Rezūm should be the only intervention employed in patients. Patients of included studies should not have been submitted to any prior interventions, such as transurethral prostatectomy (TURP) for the relief of their symptoms. Patients' baseline characteristics along with intraoperative and postoperative parameters were collected and analysed. Catheter relief was the primary outcome.
Results: Five studies fulfilled all the criteria and were included in the final qualitative synthesis. Four studies were retrospective and one was prospective. All studies were non-comparative. The success rate ranged from 70.3 to 100%, while no grade ≥ III Clavien-Dindo complications were reported in any of the studies.
Conclusion: Rezūm Water Vapor Therapy Treatment seems to be a feasible, safe and efficient minimally-invasive procedure for catheterized patients with urinary retention secondary to BPH, especially for frail ones with comorbidities who cannot undergo general anesthesia.
Keywords: Functional outcomes; Permanent catheter; Rezūm; Trial without catheter; Urinary retention; Water vapor therapy.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.