REZUM--HAVE YOU HAD THIS DONE???????

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I had a nice conversation today with the President of the "Urology Times". He was telling me that there is a "New Procedure" that has been approved called the "REZUM SYSTEM".  The company that makes the system is called "NXThera, Inc".  You can google them up and lots of stuff comes up.  I called them for a referral and they gave me a Doctor in Minnepolis that has done it over 50 times now.  I called his nurse and she said he would call me back and answer my questions on monday.  As you guys probably know Doctors are not very good at returning calls but we'll see what happens.  Iam not very good at explaining how the procedure works but basically they take the device and put it up the uretha and vaporize the prostate cells which kills them.  It works with high pressure "steam" that at a certain degree will kill the prostate tissue.  My question for you guys is there anybody out there that has had it done to them and how are you getting along and are there "side effects", etc etc?????

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  • Posted

    To everyone on this forum considering the Rezum procedure, here is my experience with it so far.

    Am 53 year old male, caucasian, physically quite active, general good health (though had CABGx4 a year ago), not overweight, never smoked, good eating habits, etc.

    Started experiencing LUTS more than 5 years ago, starting with urinary frequency, then poor weak streams, eventually painful/difficult urination. Had my first bout of prostatitis about 3-4 years ago which was treated with antibiotics. Shortly afterwards went on Flomax and other alpha-blockers, including Rappaflo at one point. Starting 2 years ago, would get up between 6-12 times at night, even while on meds! Consistently scored in the low 30s in the scale measuring urinary disfunction.

    About 1 1/2 year ago started to look into surgical treatments, initially considering TURP (pitched as the "gold" standard), then the Laser options (Green Light, HoLEP, etc), but was concerned about the risk of retrograde ejaculation (was given Rappaflo to experience this and hated it!). That was when I started to look into alternative surgical treatments, including PAE, Gat-Goreng (never quite convinced that this was a truly legit treatment option), Urolift and eventually Rezum.

     After reviewing the lit on PubMed and interviewing one of the doctor's listed in one of the articles, decided to go ahead with Rezum late last year. Had my procedure done on 12/9/16. Was given valium to tranquilize me, had local anesthesia applied to my both prostate lobes renally, procedure itself took less than 10 minutes, with 4-5 applications, including one to my median lobe. Procedure was definitely uncomfortable and somewhat painful, though bearable (6-7 out of 10). After the procedure had a Foley inserted and sent home. No major pain or discomfort simptoms at that point. Came back 3 days later to have succesfully Foley removed. Was started on Cipro day before the surgery and for 10-15 days after. Still on Flomax and Cialis.

    First couple of weeks went relatively well, some discomfort and similar simptoms as before treatment in terms of frequency and quality of urinary stream. Starting two weeks after the surgery discomfort and pain started to get progressively worse, with urinary frequency going markedly up, chronic pain in perineum, burning sensation when urinating (as if peeing acid), blood in urine, pain in the pelvic area and a constant sensation as if having a flaming golf ball stuck deep inside the anus. Pain and discomfort became so great that I would howl peeing, even on pyridium. Eventually was put on Ibuprofen/Celebrex which helped with the inflamation.

    Been now on NAISDs for more than 3 months, pain has subsided slightly, but still experiencing burning while urinating, urinary frequency (a bit less), pelvic pain radiating to my lower back, etc. Urinary flow is better (apparently had median lobe growing into bladder, with chunk still left there). Current diagnosis is CPPS, with no end in sight.

    Bottom line, cannot say that this procedure has worked for me as expected, suspect that while it helped open the obstruction in the bladder neck, it made my chronic prostatitis severely worse, with no end or treatment in sight.

     

  • Posted

    I also had REZUM done 12/15/16. I was suppose to have it done 11/1/16 but after uro doc put that prob up my ass I couldn't stand the pain. He stopped and said I would have to be put alseep. Had it done while I was out. When I woke up after surgery I had a cath and looked down there and I was very swolen.... Once the swelling went down the tube and I was in AWFUL pain. Anyway when home and didnt have much pain. No meds at all. Three days latter when and had the cath taken out and thats where everything went down hill from there. I was peeing every few minutes.  Lots, and lots of PAIN peeing. Not sure why. After hours of pain I ended up in the er with another cath put back in me.  It hurt like HELL going back in, I thought I was going to die...... They put a small bag on my leg. Having to empty the bag every few hours was awful. I was afraid it would overflow and back up.

    Anyway so much more to tell, but now I am back to normal as I was before having surgery.  I have better flow. But I get up at least three times a night.  I have no pain now and I really can't see any improvement other than peeing better. All the pain and after effect and I am on no drugs now.  When I have sex there is a lot of seman, more than before. But I feel there are other problems I didn't have before having the surgery,like keeping a errection during sex. So we will see if that gets better. I didn't have that issue before. Hoping we both will get better as time goes on. Wishing you all the best!

    • Posted

      Leon

      Thanks, same to you. Am assuming that you had bacterial culture to rule out a bacterial infection (most likely not the case, plus you would be experiencing chilss/fever/etc if not treated with antibiotics). My current diagnosis is chronic abacterial Prostatitis (or Type III based on the NIH classification), which is a catch all category meaning that UROs do not have any clue as to what's behind it.

      Wish you the best of luck, and please keep me posted as your condition evolves!

    • Posted

      The result you got was predictable. Rezum was unlikely to help with prostatitis and had a high likelihood of making it worse, at least for awhile. All Rezum does is make you pee better - so when the additional irritation from it subsided, that's where it left you.

    • Posted

      All the burning while urinating - is that after the foley is removed ?
    • Posted

      Does anyone know what percentage of prostate cancers are fast growing?
    • Posted

      That's impossible to answer without defining "fast". Here is some perspective that might help - only 5% of all prostate cancers will ever grow to the point that it will kill someone before something else does. Put the other way, 95% of people with untreated prostate cancern will die of something else first. 

    • Posted

      Yes that is what they seam to say 5% are fast growing.  With that being said you must have all the test you can to make sure what kind you have.  Some time doctors what to  treat you for the cancer but the cancer you have may take 10 to 15 years to cause you a problem.     And you could die from something else. If you rush into to some of the procedure you can end up with more problem.  The is a story that I read a few years ago call.  I want my prostate back.  Read it please  Ken  
  • Posted

    Has anyone had the Rezum done in Louisville, Ky. If who was the Dr. that the procedure?
  • Posted

    Rezum Patient now over 3 months out!

    Hi, folks.  My IPSS score when from a 33 to a 0.  I had BPH and was hospitalized as a result of that before I decided to get help.

    To avoid rehashing my journey, I decided to place detailed logs on the procedure and recovery on a separate thread.  In short, I have 0 regrets on going with Rezum as it has given me my life back.  Please take some time and read through the options I considered and some of my medical details.  Suffering from BPH is unnecessary so see a doctor - the sooner the better.

    The details are here:

    https://patient.info/forums/discuss/rezum-treatment-details-553352?page=0&order=Oldest

     

    • Posted

      Hi Outtatoonee,

      Congratulations on your great result! 

      Could you please share with us a little more about your history prior to Rezum. I did read you had frequency, dysuria, and nocturia as well a prostatitis. But what about retention? Were you tested for post void residual (PVR) in your doctor's office and/or in the hospital as part of a bladder/kidney scan study?

      I ask because "BPH" is such a catch all, and what seems apparent here is that the success of various treatments have as much to do with the pre-existing condition of the entire urinary system as with the individual procedure itself. 

      Jim

    • Posted

      Thank you for the detail info about REZUM, I have couple questions need your help,

      1. I also jogging, when did you back to jog after the REZUM?

      2. How long it takes for your peeing back to work like 1 to 10 compare to when you were young, how do rate it after REZUM?

      3.Thank you very much

    • Posted

      Morris - please make sure to understand that everyone's results are different. One's specific prostate, the doctor's skill and any other issues that could impact flow (like a less than fully functional bladder) all impact outcomes.

      That said, here are my answers to your questions:

      1) A couple of weeks. I had some urgency when I jogged - even after it went away in normal activities. It wasn't horrible, nothing close to causing an accident, just something between interesting and annoying when I ran - it was the last side effect I had. But I was back in the gym lifting weights in less than a week and running about 10 days later, with my doc's blessing.

      2) For me, it was gradual. My recovery was slower than most at the beginning (self cathing for about 2/12 weeks and pretty iffy for about 5). About 6 weeks after the procedure, I noticed for the first time that I seemed better than when I went in. Things kept improving for close to a year. The Ruzum results are complete in 6 months and most of the benefit will come in weeks 6-12. I have an underactive bladder which improved slowly, so I continued peeing better for close to a year as my bladder bounced back. I'd say I was a 3-4 on a ten scale prior to Rezum and about a 7 after - but because at times its close to a 9, I think Rezum worked well, but at times my bladder still doesn't.

    • Posted

      I don't know about jogging, but I had ,mine done 10/15/2016

      Went back to Dr 05/11/2017 because I am having a lot of trouble peeing.He scoped me and said bladder is ok, but one lobe of prostate did not srink. He put me on Cath. That SOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun.In two weeks He is going to tell me if we should redo Rezum.

      Good luck to us all 

       

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