Dr. Marhamati on data, experiences supporting ASC Aquablation

Potomac Urology has become the first US-based location to offer Aquablation for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) setting. In this interview, Shawn H. Marhamati, MD, MS, highlights the experiences and data that supported the trial of Aquablation in an ASC setting. Marhamati is a urologist at Potomac Urology in Northern Virginia.

Video Transcript:

What made us feel comfortable moving towards the ambulatory model was partially born out of necessity. During COVID, at our center, as in many other centers, there were strict criteria for certain elective cases. One of those was same day discharge. We realized from that experience that we could safely perform the majority of our Aquablations as day cases. Furthermore, we've been quite diligent about collecting retrospective data on our experience and are in fact presenting our series at the AUA meeting this year. When stacked up against the WATER I(NCT02505919) and WATER II (NCT03123250) clinical trials, our patients have similarly impressive IPSS score and Qmax improvements, and most importantly, we noted a significantly lower rate of adverse events in our series vs the WATER trials, owing to the standardization of hemostasis technique.

Furthermore, there's a plethora of literature out there since WATER II that corroborated our experience as to the safety of the technology. One particular study that comes to mind is the multicenter experience of Dr. Elterman and colleagues, who found transfusion and take back rates of well less than 1% since the incorporation of focal bladder neck cautery. I also had the opportunity to observe Dr. Kevin Zorn from BPH Canada, who was the very first to launch ambulatory surgery center Aquablation internationally. I was also fortunate to pick up a number of tips and tricks from him as well prior to our own launch.

This transcription has been edited for clarity.