An in vitro study comparing the coagulation and cautery effects of bipolar and unipolar cutting modalities on prostatic tissue.
BACKGROUND
We aimed to compare plasmakinetic prostate resection (PKRP), plasmakinetic prostate vaporization (PKVP) and transurethral prostate resection (TURP) procedures according to cautery artifacts in tissue specimens and to compare the coagulation depths of these procedures.


METHODS
The prostate specimens of 10 patients that underwent open transvesical prostatectomy were used. TURP, PKVP and PKRP procedures were performed immediately. Artifactual pathological patterns that were identified in the specimens included: abnormal cellular orientation and spindling, artifactual cellular detachment from the underlying basement membrane, atypical cytological changes and stromal coagulative artifacts. The severity of cautery artifact was graded as absent, mild, moderate or severe according to the sum of points in each specimen.


RESULTS
When the groups were compared according to moderate and severe artifacts, it was observed that PKRP caused more moderate artifacts and TURP caused more severe artifacts than the other two groups (p < 0.05). The depth of the tissue affected by coagulation was 1.52 +/- 1.29 mm with the TURP procedure. There were significant differences between TURP and the other two methods (p < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Three transurethral procedures cause cautery artifacts of varying grades. The application of TURP seems to cause more severe artifacts and PKRP and PKVP procedures seem to result in a deeper coagulation zone in the residual prostatic tissue.
Akgül
Turgay
T
Department ofSecond Urology Clinic, Ministry of Health Ankara Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
Nuhoğlu
Bariş
B
Polat
Osman
O
Ayyildiz
Ali
A
Astarci
Müzeyyen
M
Germiyanoğlu
Cankon
C
Ustün
Hüseyin
H
D016477:Artifacts; D002425:Cautery; D004564:Electrocoagulation; D004598:Electrosurgery; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008297:Male; D011467:Prostate / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*