Review of Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy (BPH) (Nursing)

00:00 Okay now we're going to talk about another problem that plagues our older population of men, benign prostatic hypertrophy. Okay, BPH is normally what we call that because that is a mouthful to say. Now, look at the graphic we have for you there. Okay, there is your bladder and then in green you have the little prostate, almost looks heart shaped. Right? And the urethra. That's what drains urine from the bladder out of the body. Now, when someone has BPH, look at the graphic on the right, it's hypertrophy. That just means extra grow. See how kind of overgrown it is. Yeah, that's kind of hypertrophied detrusor muscle. Also when you look down at the prostate it's not a neat heart shape anymore. It is pushing on the urethra. That causes an obstructed urinary flow. Okay, so this is why people with BPH have so many problems trying to urinate. They've got that hypertrophied detrusor muscle so the bladder is not as efficient as it used to be, they have got the prostate pushing on the urethra so it can even drain and that's why this becomes really problematic. Erectile dysfunction is difficult for males to talk about but so is this. Now, we've got a picture of a scale here to kind of show you a normal prostate weighs about 4-20 grams. So you've got a normal prostate on the left, weighs about 4-20 grams. Just in case you didn't know that, that's a fun fact of trivia you can try on your friends see if anyone knows how much a normal prostate weighs. Now let's look at a prostate when it becomes enlarged with BPH. Yeah, 50-80 grams. That just kind of gives you perspective of what these men are having to deal with. Look how much bigger and thicker these prostates are once they become enlarged. Now what are the symptoms? What do you think it feels like for a man to have BPH. Well, it's most common in men 50 and older and no way likes to see the signs that they're getting older. Right? But this is one of those for men. Now, almost half the men 60 plus have BPH, very very common. So that's another way you can help make your patients feel comfortable, say like "Oh this is very common occurrence as we age." Now, when BPH is putting pressure on the urethra and it can also cause those changes in your bladder so we have obstructive urinary flow, that means the patient will describe it like "I just can't seem like I feel like I need to go to the bathroom but when I try I can't start peeing. I can't start and then when I start I have a hard time stopping and I can't really maintain a stream and then when I'm done it just kind of keeps dribbling." Like you know not a real clinical way to describe it but some I had a patient tell me one time "I used to be able to write my name in the snow and now I can't even get the first couple of letters out" and I had a really hard time keeping a straight face but it was a perfect explanation of obstructive BPH. Now the bladder change as we talked about. How those will feel to a patient is they can be sitting down at a social event or at a work meet, also have like "Oh I've got to go, I gotta go" and this happens to them multiple times a day. It's not like a normal bladder and prostate where you know "Hey if I drink a big gulp I'm gonna have to pee pretty soon." They don't know, it just "boom" hits them like they have to go. There's frequency, they're going multiple times a day and then when they get there they can't empy their bladder very well. So it's really frustrating. Also all night long they're up and down and up and down, that's what nocturia means. They're going to be like "Did somebody slip a diuretic in my drink last night? What happened?" Now it's just really typical. So you can see how BPH can really kind of disrupt your daily life. These are frustrating feelings, they interrupt your normal activities and it's just difficult for a patient to manage.