Water vapor thermal therapy of lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic obstruction: efficacy and safety analysis of a real-world cohort of 211 patients

Purpose This study assessed the efficacy, safety and durability outcomes of water vapor thermal therapy with Rezum in a real-world cohort of patients with lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostate obstruction.

Methods Consecutive, unselected patients undergoing Rezum treatment between January 2014 and August 2022 were candidates for this pragmatic, observational, longitudinal, single-center cohort study.

Pre- and perioperative data were descriptively summarized.

The primary outcome was surgical efficacy, determined by International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), Quality of Life (QoL) Score, maximum urinary flow rate (Qmax), post-void residual (PVR) volume and prostate volume (PV) at baseline, 2 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, and > 2 years.

Results A total of 211 patients were enrolled for analysis.

Overall, catheter removal was successful in 92.4% of patients after a median of 5 days.

A preoperative catheter and the presence of a median lobe increased the risk of unsuccessful catheter removal.

In total, 5.7% of patients were reoperated after a median of 407 days.

Comparing baseline to the longest median follow-up, the postoperative IPSS decreased significantly by 65.7%, the QoL Score declined by 66.7% (both until a maximum median of 4.5 years) and Qmax improved by 66.7% (until 3.9 years).

Post-void residual volume and PV were reduced by 85.7% (3.7 years) and 47% (4.0 years), respectively.

Clavien–Dindo complication ≤ II occurred in 11.8%.

Conclusion Rezum is a safe minimally invasive treatment option in a real-world patient cohort with a beneficial improvement of micturition symptoms and voiding function during follow-up.