Kevin Zorn, MD, on Aquablation's evolution to enable same-day discharge

In this video, Kevin C. Zorn, MD, FRCSC, FACS, highlights the background for the study, “Safety and Efficacy of Same Day Discharge for Men Undergoing Contemporary Robotic-assisted Aquablation Prostate Surgery in an Ambulatory Surgery Center Setting-First Global Experience,” for which he served as the lead author. Zorn is the founder and director of BPH Canada in Montreal, Canada.

Video Transcript:

The opportunity for us to do Aquablation in an ASC spawns a year ago, into which an environment where we were already doing GreenLight, we were doing enucleation, we were doing all the other procedures as an outpatient procedure. Having spoken to other KOLs that I've done numerous Aquablations with in the UK, other parts of the USA, there was a strong interest [in moving to an ASC], given the fact that we've evolved from Water I, Water II, where there's no cautery. We witnessed the impact of focal bladder cautery, which took transfusions, which a lot of people associate with Aquablation, 1%-5% transfusion down to 0.2%, Nearly 50,000 cases performed to date. So, it came to that. I guess [it was] the comfort level, the experience, the knowledge of the anatomy, the vasculature. Can you do this procedure and use the individual aspects for hemostasis, the balloon––some of the things we'll touch base on––that would lead to a good hemostasis protocol, good patient education, and then keeping the catheter a certain number of days after the procedure? It came to that.

I think it really came to the evolution in a technology where better appreciation of all the elements around the surgical procedure and hemostasis have led to that. Similar to, I guess, if anyone here is listening and has watched the first Da Vinci robot, which took 8 hours. That was revolutionary in 2003 by [J.] Binder, and lo and behold, today, so many users are using it. It's the evolution, like the iPhone, like anything else. The technology is there, the experience is there now, and it's bringing it all together to lead to better outcomes [and a] shorter hospital stay. And for us in the Canadian system, getting patients out and not using hospital beds, which are such a precious resource, is a huge value. We've seen that from my some of my counterparts. [For] Dr. [Neil] Barber and others in the UK, their hindrance to doing cases is, is there a hospital bed for these patients? So, if we don't need that, this then opens up a great opportunity to do more patients, almost an Aquablation, 1 case an hour. We can get through a lot more cases and deliver better outcomes.

This transcription has been edited for clarity.