Focused ultrasounds (HIFU – Ablatherm) for prostate cancers

English version

• Cardiac Medico-Surgical Department
• Digestive Disease’s Department
• Mother-child department
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopaedic surgery
• Thoracic
• Urology
  • Collaboration networks
  • The Medical Staff
  • Inpatients department
  • Treated Diseases

Focused ultrasounds are used to destroy tumours inside the human body.
The current objective is to obtain local control of prostate cancers confined to the prostate gland.
The technique is performed under peridural or general anaesthesia and consists of transrectal destruction of zones of the prostate defined by ultrasonography. An expert system allows continuous monitoring of the correct position of the target zone.
To avoid urinary retention, endoscopic resection of the prostate is often proposed during the same operation.
The negative biopsy rate after treatment is currently 70%.
The value of this method is that it can be repeated in the case of recurrence, as there are no cumulative effects of ultrasound, in contrast with radiation.
Ultrasound is equally effective in patients previously treated by radiotherapy, with a negative biopsy rate of 80%.

Complications are rare:

• stress urinary incontinence: 2%
• impotence: 25%

Everyday activities can be resumed almost immediately, after a hospital stay of about 4 days.