ABSTRACT Purpose To examine the safety and efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen as the primary and sole treatment for severe radiation-induced haemorrhagic cystitis. Materials and methods Hyperbaric oxygen was prospectively applied as primary treatment in 38 patients with severe radiation cystitis. Our primary endpoint was the incidence of complete and partial response to treatment, while the secondary endpoints included the duration of response, the correlation of treatment success-rate to the interval between the onset of haematuria and initiation of therapy, blood transfusion need and total radiation dose, the number of sessions to success, the avoidance of surgery and the overall survival. Results All patients completed therapy without complications with a mean follow-up of 29.33 months. Median number of sessions needed was 33. Complete and partial response rate was 86.8% and 13.2%, respectively. All 33 patients with complete response received therapy within 6 months of the haematuria onset. One patient needed cystectomy, while 33 patients were alive at the end of follow-up. Conclusions Our study suggests the early primary use of hyperbaric oxygen for radiation-induced severe cystitis as an effective and safe treatment option.

Purpose To examine the safety and efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen as the primary treatment for Grade IV radiation-induced haemorrhagic cystitis. Materials and Methods Hyperbaric oxygen was prospectively applied as a primary treatment option in 11 patients with Grade IV radiation cystitis. Primary endpoint was the incidence of complete and partial response to treatment. Secondary endpoints included the duration of response, the correlation of treatment success-rate to the interval between the onset of haematuria and initiation of therapy, blood transfusion need and total radiation dose, the number of sessions to success, the avoidance of surgery and the overall survival. Results All patients completed therapy without complications for a mean follow-up of 17.82 months (range 3 to 34). Mean number of sessions needed was 32.8 (range 27 to 44). Complete and partial response rate was 81.8% and 18.2%, respectively. However, in three patients the first treatment session was not either sufficient or durable giving a 72.7% rate of durable effect. Interestingly, all 9 patients with complete response received therapy within 6 months of the haematuria onset compared to the two patients with partial response who received therapy at 8 and 10 months from the haematuria onset, respectively (p = 0.018). The need for blood transfusion (p = 0.491) and the total radiation dose (p = 0.259) were not correlated to success-rate. One patient needed cystectomy, while all patients were alive at the end of follow-up. Conclusions Early primary use of hyperbaric oxygen to treat radiation-induced grade IV cystitis is an effective and safe treatment option.

OBJECTIVE: To prospectively evaluate the outcome of using a two-suture technique for the vesicourethral anastomosis (VUA) during radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Two groups of 50 patients each underwent nerve-sparing RRP for localized prostate cancer by one surgeon. In one group, the vesicourethral anastomosis was performed using 2 Vicryl 2-0 stitches placed at the 3- and 9-o’clock positions and in the other group 6 Vicryl 2-0 stitches were placed at the 2-, 4-, 6-, 8-, 10- and 12-o’clock positions. The intraoperative and perioperative parameters analyzed were time to perform the VUA, time to remove the drain and hospitalization. The rate of incontinence, anastomotic stricture and erectile function were included in the outcome analysis. RESULTS: The anastomotic time differed statistically between the 2 groups (mean 3.3 minutes for the 2-suture group and 10.5 minutes for the 6-suture group, p < 0.0001) with similar periods of drain removal (mean 3.12 days for the 2-suture group and 3.45 days for the 6-suture group; p = 0.13) and hospitalization (mean 4.66 days for the 2-suture group and 5.3 days for the 6-suture group; p = 0.09). The functional outcome was excellent for the 2-suture group with no patient suffering from incontinence or anastomotic strictures 1 year postoperatively, while in the 6-suture group there were 2 patients (4%) suffering from incontinence (2 underwent sling procedure) and 1 patient suffered from anastomotic stricture. CONCLUSION: The low number of sutures in the 2-suture VUA technique reduces operating times, does not influence perioperative and intraoperative parameters and results in excellent functional outcome.