Dr. Rayala discusses implementing nitrous oxide during transrectal prostate biopsy

In this video, Heidi J. Rayala, MD, PhD, discusses incorporating nitrous oxide into transrectal prostate biopsy. Rayala is the senior author of the recent Journal of Urology study “Practical Use of Self-Adjusted Nitrous Oxide (SANO) During Transrectal Prostate Biopsy: A Double-Blind Randomized-Control Trial.” She is an assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.

Transcription:

Based on these findings, are you likely to alter anything about your own clinical practice?

I think that what most people will find is, if you're in an academic center, it can be a little bit difficult to set up a nitrous oxide program because there is a lot of red tape for bringing a gas into the ambulatory setting. It's much easier in private practice, and that's why it's really gained popularity there. So we, like most institutions, have had to go through a process of getting it approved by our hospital committees and developing a training program for those people who are going to administer. So there is a little bit of work involved in getting it set up. However, we have definitely been using it. We're using it for those patients who basically say, "There's no way I can do this awake; I need to go to the operating room to have this done." And so in that instance, we can say, "What about the option of laughing gas?" And so there are definitely people who have taken us up on that. And we've also looked at nitrous oxide now for urodynamic studies and we presented those results. That certainly also made the procedure more comfortable for patients. And we're currently looking at using nitrous for vasectomies and whether that helps their experience of care.

This transcription was edited for clarity.