It was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration in 2015[2] and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) of the UK in 2018.
[3] As of August 2018 the system was in use in 5 National Health Service hospitals in England, and is due to be implemented in a further 15.
Over a period of about three months the dead cells are removed by the body, thus shrinking the prostate and relieving BPH symptoms.
[citation needed] The RCT from 2016 comparing prostate steam treatment to a sham procedure (a placebo) found three months after the operation with moderate certainty that this procedure may improve the quality of life for men with moderate urinary symptoms.
[4][7] Water vapor thermal therapy was looked at in larger volume prostates (>80 mL) and in those with middle lobes protruding into the bladder and it appears to work.