Continuing To Learn About Aquablation

Where can I find the basics of aquablation and it's scientific judgment?

Thanks, Phil, for your thorough feedback. Two points relevant to my situation that I wondered about are the size of your prostate before ablation and the frequency of nighttime awakenings for urination pre- and post-ablation.

Hi, how did your experience work out? In in N GA and going to Cumming, GA Sept 15th for my procedure consultation.

Your comment here, among many others on the topic of aquablation, has convinced me that I want to advocate for it myself. I should see a urologist at Mayo Clinic Scottsdale (AZ) who is participating in Vapor2 trials. Sign me up!!!

Glad to hear all went well for you, they must have screwed up on mine as after 7 months, it was back to old way. Happen just like almost overnight. I still haven't found out what they woke me up from surgery and had me sign something electronically?? I could see down there and I think it was the 4th year resident- not my doctor? I don't have a clue what I was signing as I was out of it. Have asked for the information and got a large document, but it just talks about the process and both doctor and resident are mention, but nothing showing what I signed. It does show what staff signed.
Maybe you should never go to a training hospital, usually we have had good results from KUMC. For some reason they don't want to show me copies of what I signed and it is strange they woke me up and put this tablet above my head to sign something.

Part of what I found in the 80 page document, I don't think surgeon I talked to and scheduled actually did the surgery, but a person was learning did the surgery. Maybe this is common in training hospitals, I don't know. I wanted someone who had done a bunch and knew what was going on. Maybe training hospitals should be avoided, I don't know is Mayo a training facility? Is this kind of thing usual?

Below are just 2 statements I picked up on.
1) I was present, scrubbed, and participated in the procedure with a resident
2) Dr. XYZ was readily available throughout the procedure

From what you just shared it does indeed sound like a resident and not your main doctor actually did your procedure. The fact they are responding with legalese rather than clearly answering your question is a big red flag. Prior to your surger they should have made perfectly clear who was going to be handling the aquablation procedure as well as any “cleaning up” that is done with a turp tool after aquablation. In my reading this is an important step that requires a good level of experience. They need to make this right for you. They should scope you to see what the problem is and then correct it. .

I had the scoping a few weeks ago and asked if there was new growth. He said no new growth, there was obstructive tissue present at the apex (which I think is directly below bladder). It seems he was saying that Aquablation just didn't remove some of that hard tissue???
But then when I ask why things were okay for 7 months and I don't really get an answer that I understand, just continues saying some tissue is too tough for Aquablation to remove and they were being really careful so I didn't have RE. This doctor just doesn't make logically sense with his answers and no matter how many times I tried to get more details, I just got generic answers. He did say that the Urolift I had done (2 years earlier) by a different doctors was done wrong, but wouldn't explain any further. I did see where they cut out 3 urolift clamps on left side and 1 on right side, so that means there are still 2 urolift clamps on right side. Not sure why they didn't remove the other 2 on right side. Seems strange, but maybe it makes perfect sense if you are a trained surgeon? I know tissue grows over the urolift clamps, but it seems tissue would all have grown over the same thickness. But for some reason it sounds like less was taken out on right side?

I am at a loss of what to think or do, I get by on flowmax, not great, but guess there are worse things. In my home town, Topeka KS, all they do is Urolift (1 doctor) and 7 or 8 that do TURP. Got to drive 80 miles one way to Kansas City to get other options. That is where I went for Aquablation KUMC. Rated #7 by some USNews or some rating outfit.

Thank you for the additional details. It is too bad there are not other providers you could go to fo another opinion. I have done a lot of reading about aquablation including the research centers and have never heard about tissue “too tough” for the water stream. They can see whats going on in real time and can go in with the reseciscope to take out any tissue they need to manually. I will look for a video from a Banner Health hospital in phoenix that shows the surgeon going in and removing quite a few pieces of tissue with that tool. Hang in there.

Dr. Helmand of Northwest Hospitals in Chicgaoland has preformed over 500 aquablations. He believes 10-15 procedures provides competency. It can be done after radiotherapy or before also. It works on very large prostates as well 200cc even.