[3] Placement of a permanent prostatic stent is carried out as an outpatient treatment under local, topical or spinal anesthesia and usually takes about 15–30 minutes.

[citation needed] At the present time, there is one temporary prostatic stent that has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.

It has also become an effective differential diagnostic tool for identifying poor bladder function separate from prostatic obstruction.

The braided mesh is designed to expand radially, applying constant gentle pressure to hold open the sections of the urethra that obstruct the flow of urine.

Permanent stents are used to relieve urinary obstructions secondary to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), recurrent bulbar urethral stricture (RBUS), or detrusor external sphincter dyssynergia (DESD).