Mini-Review: What Is New in Urolift?

Abstract

Context: Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are one of the most common benign conditions affecting aging men. Among surgical procedures, minimally invasive treatment options have emerged with the main objective to be at least equally effective as current standard techniques, but with a more favourable safety profile.

Objective: To present the technical principle for prostatic urethral lift (PUL) and review clinical outcomes.

Evidence acquisition: Medline, PubMed, the Cochrane database, and Embase were screened for randomised controlled trials, clinical trials, and reviews on PUL.

Evidence synthesis: Data from the L.I.F.T study proved that PUL can provide rapid and durable relief of LUTS without compromising sexual function. The BPH6 trial compared PUL with transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), and its outcomes indicated that improvement of LUTS was more pronounced after TURP, whereas PUL was superior in terms of quality of recovery, ejaculatory function, and quality of sleep.

Conclusions: PUL is an attractive option for selected patients who seek rapid and durable relief of LUTS with complete preservation of sexual function and fast recovery after intervention.

Patient summary: Prostatic urethral lift is an efficient and safe minimally invasive procedure that offers rapid and durable relief of lower urinary tract symptoms without compromising sexual function.

Keywords: Benign prostatic hyperplasia; Lower urinary tract symptoms; Minimally invasive treatment; Prostatic urethral lift.