V412: Evaluation of a new enucleating loop for Holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP); Pilot study

Video

Introduction and Objectives
HoLEP entails the use of Holmium laser to enter the plane between the prostate adenoma and surgical capsule peeling each prostatic lobe from the capsule. Widespread use of HoLEP is hindered by its steep learning curve with long operating time. A new loop (laser guide probe with retracting beaks) is introduced to facilitate the process of enucleation and potentially shorten the learning curve. We are sharing our early experience with this interesting device

Methods
A prospective evaluation of single surgeon`s 73 consecutive HoLEP procedures was performed. The regular enucleation set was utilized in 38 procedures (Group-I) and the new enucleation loop was utilized in the other 35 (Group-II). All parameters were collected and compared

Results
No significant differences were observed between the two groups in any of the baseline criteria (Table 1). The enucleation time was significantly shorter (a mean of 15 minutes) in group-II (P0.05) however; the enucleation efficacy (enucleated weight/ enucleation time) and enucleation ratio efficacy (enucleation ratio/ enucleation time) were significantly higher in group-II (P0.05)

Conclusions
The new loop seems to be effective in enhancing the enucleation procedure. It acts as a dissector and retractor of the enucleated adenoma all through the procedure abridging one difficulty of the procedure. This resulted in shorter operating time and potentially will facilitate learning the enucleation technique.

Funding: none