Microwave hyperthermia in benign prostatic hypertrophy: a controlled clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the effects of microwave hyperthermia in benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) to sham treatment.

METHODS

The trial included 96 patients with proven symptomatic bladder outflow obstruction (BOO) caused by BPH. Patients underwent a full subjective and objective assessment (including urodynamics) before inclusion and again 3 and 6 months later. They were randomly assigned to receive 1 h of microwave hyperthermia or a sham treatment. Of the 96 patients, 93 were assessed at 3 months and 62 at 6 months after treatment.

RESULTS

There was no statistically significant difference in the objective measures of BOO between the treated and control groups of patients. There was an improvement of approximately 40% in all the subjective measures, but there was no significant difference between the treated and control groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Microwave hyperthermia, within the parameters defined in this trial, resulted in no significant difference from sham treatment in subjective or objective outcome.