For years, Laurel, Maryland, resident Michael Cominski coped with the effects of an enlarged prostate. He woke up as many as five times a night to use the bathroom, and it began to take a toll.
“Quality of life has a lot to do with quality of sleep,” said Cominski, 68.
He tried medication to treat his enlarged prostate – a condition that affects more than 80% of men as they age. When that didn’t help, he opted for a new procedure called aquablation.
“It was almost an immediate change for the better,” he said.
Aquablation is a minimally invasive, robotic surgery to treat an enlarged prostate. It’s designed to bring long-term relief with a lower risk of complications than traditional surgery.
“The aquablation system uses pressurized water to ablate and remove the tissue so there is no thermal energy, so it has the benefit of having zero risk of creating any erectile dysfunction,” said Dr. Kai Li with Kaiser Permanente. He performed Cominski’s surgery.
Aquablation can treat enlarged prostates of any size, Li said.
“It can treat prostates as small as a walnut to prostates as large as a grapefruit,” he said.
For Cominski, the surgery gave him and his wife the freedom to travel.
“I don’t have to worry or be tentative about where we’re going, how long we’re going to be going,” he said.
He said the results of aquablation were “better than I had ever anticipated.”
Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic has performed more than 100 aquablation surgeries since February 2022. The procedure is typically covered by health insurance and Medicare, and takes about 90 minutes from start to finish.
Most patients are monitored at a hospital overnight and then recover at home within a few weeks.
