The Schelin Catheter™ is since many years used as standard before thermotherapy treatment with CoreTherm®. Then local anesthesia with adrenaline is administered into the prostate through the catheter and this contributes to both a substantially painless treatment and a reduced blood flow in the prostate, which in turn has shortened the thermotherapy treatment to today's approximately 10-15 minutes.

Until today, pain relief before water vapor therapy is usually either local anesthesia injected through the rectum or that patients are general anesthetized during the procedure. The former entails a significant risk of severe infections, and the latter is also associated with risks and takes up considerable resources. With the Schelin Catheter™, the prostate can effectively be anesthetized in a sterile way before water vapor therapy, thus avoiding the risk of rectum pathogens to enter the body at the time of injection. At the same time, the patient does not need to be general anesthetized and can go home immediately after treatment.

Earlier this year it was the world premiere for the use of the Schelin Catheter prior to water vapor therapy at C-Medical Urologi Carlanderska in Gothenburg. Last week Mr Sachin Malde, Consultant Urological Surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London, UK, became the first urologist outside Sweden to use ProstaLund´s device in this context.

Mr Malde comments: “The Schelin Catheter made it possible to successfully provide local anesthetics in a sterile way before water vapor therapy. It was easy and convenient to use, and my patient really appreciated that he did not need any general anesthesia. In addition, he was satisfied with CoreFlow – Soft Stent during the follow-up period. I was very impressed with both devices and look forward to using them again soon.”

Water vapor therapy is a promising method for treating benign prostate enlargement (BPE). Admittedly, studies show that it does not provide the same symptom relief as thermotherapy with CoreTherm®, but the method can complement CoreTherm® and be used for patients with really small prostates or when the anatomy of the prostate includes a so-called third lobe. Still, we estimate that 80,000 - 120,000 water vapor procedures yearly are performed world-wide, around 4,000 of these in UK.

"The Schelin Catheter can, without compromising efficacy, reduce the risks for the BPE patients undergoing treatment with RezūmTM. Since this method is offered at more clinics in England than in the Nordic region, there are very good opportunities for us and our distributors iUrology to get volumes on the Schelin Catheter and CoreFlow – Soft Stent.", says CEO Johan Wennerholm in a comment.