Laser En Bloc Resection of Bladder Tumors for Staging and Treatment of Primary Bladder Cancer

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Today, transurethral resection of superficial bladder cancer is the standard therapy. Assessing the correct penetration depth is crucial. Reasons for the high rates of local recurrence are under investigation. Potential disadvantages of the standard technique are thermal damage of adjacent tissue, the “incise and scatter” technique that causes fragmentation of the tumor and leads to a high amount of exfoliated cancer cells, and the difficulty of accurate pathological evaluation of fragmented tissue.1 En bloc resection techniques are an emerging issue.2–4 The first description of a laser en bloc resection of bladder tumors using Ho:YAG (holmium laser resection of bladder tumors [HoLRBT]) was published by Das et al.5 With the introduction of thulium as a new source for laser devices, several studies were published dealing with en bloc resection techniques of bladder cancer (Thulium laser resection of bladder [TmLRBT]).6,7 Methods: The objective of this study was to present our techniq...