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Show Your Doctor Says . . . The following is one of a series of article) written by members of the Utah State Medical Association and published in cooperation with your local newspaper. These articles are scheduled to appear every other week throughout the year in an effort to better acquaint you with problems of health, and designed to improve the well-being of tht people of Utah PROSTATE TROUBLE IN 010 MEN The prostate Rland is located in front or the urinary bladder, where the first part of the urinary passage pass-age (urethra) channels through it The gland in the adult is no larger than a chestnut and weighs about an ounce. Due to its location, enlargements tend to encroach upon the urinary channel and cause obstruction to the normal flow of urine. This enlargement occurs in about one-third of older men. Enlargement! of the prostate vary in size; however this has little relationship to the occurrence of urinary obstruction. Very alight enlargement may cause complete obstruction, whereas very marked enlargements may cause no trouble. The degree of obstruction depends on whether the enlargement encroaches en-croaches on the urinary channel or ia directed toward the rectum. As the prostate enlarges it obstructs ob-structs the passage of urine and leads to incomplete emptying of the bladder, with resulting residual orine. As this progresses, back pressure ia exerted on the kidney, resulting in damage and eventually uremic poisoning. In the early stages of prostate trouble there is a slight Increase in the frequency of urination, causing the passage of urine once or twice during the night This may be accompanied by mild distress dis-tress over the bladder area and some mild difficulty and delay in getting the stream started, As the condition progresses, increasing obstruction to urination ia noted, characterized by slowing of urination, urina-tion, constriction of stream, increased in-creased urgency and the necessity for straining to pass the urine. The frequency of urination may increase to 5 to 15 times at night and at hourly intervals during the day. The patient with increasing difficulty may find that his control is poor, which results in wetting his clothes during the day or his bed at night. The most dramatic and urgent incident occurs when complete retention takes place. This, of 'course, requires attention as soon as possible, consisting of passage of a tube (catheter) through the urinary channel to the bladder for relief. Grossly bloody urine may be another symptom of prostate troubles. This may be slight o severe and may be painless pain-less or accompanied by pain. When-this When-this is seen, cystoscopy should be done to exclude a possible bladder or upper urinary tract cancer. Gentle massage at times will relieve some of the congestion in the prostate gland and afford some relief. Hormones have not afforded relief in the non-cancerous types of enlargements. Surgery on the prostate gland can be divided di-vided into open and ' closed prostatectomy. There are three types of open prostatectomy. In all of these an incision is made and the prostate removed through this opening. Today less than 2 of men die after pros-state pros-state surgery, as compared to 20 some twenty years ago. In the closed or transurethral approach ap-proach the prostate ia divided into small portions and washed out through the instrument Cancer of the prostate gland may present the same symptoms aa described for the benign en largement Gross bleeding is unusual. un-usual. Pain from spread of the cancer to the bony structures may be the first symptom. Some cases are discovered early by rectal examination ex-amination of the prostate, revealing reveal-ing a stony hard area in the gland. Early surgery by way of the perineal route affords some cures. Others that have spread to areas outside the prostate gland bone, etc. respond to hormone (stilbes-terol) (stilbes-terol) therapy and removal of the male gonads (testicles). Many of these men remain comfortable for the remainder of their lives. |
