THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 10, 1996 TAG: 9610100360
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 38 lines
Men suffering an enlarged prostate have another outpatient treatment option: a procedure that uses radio waves instead of the popular new microwave therapy.
The Food and Drug Administration approved Vidamed Inc.'s transurethral needle ablation system, called TUNA, on Tuesday.
As men age, the prostate gland enlarges until it can impede urination. Many men don't bother with treatment, while others try drugs or standard surgery, the most effective solution but one that risks some complications. A new procedure that's better than drugs but less risky than surgery uses microwaves beamed up a catheter to kill the tissue with heat.
Vidamed's procedure is slightly different. Doctors thread needles into the prostate and use radio waves to kill the tissue.
A study found patients' symptoms improved equally after standard surgery or TUNA, but that 13 percent of standard surgery patients suffered impotence and 4.3 percent became incontinent, while none of the TUNA patients had such complications.
It will be difficult to choose between TUNA or microwave therapy, both outpatient procedures that appear similar in cost, safety and effectiveness, said Dr. John McConnell of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
But McConnell cautioned that nobody knows the long-term effectiveness of either minimally invasive therapy - and that patients should be given the choice between all treatments, ``including doing nothing.''
Vidamed said TUNA will cost about $3,600, compared to $4,800 to $8,000 for standard surgery.
KEYWORDS: FDA PROSTATE TREATMENT TUNA by CNB