.png)
Prostate biopsy
Transperineal biopsy of your prostate is an advanced procedure especially if you have a lesion in a particular region (anterior) of your prostate, or if you have a larger prostate. It also has a lower rate of infection.
Using an ultrasound probe in your back passage, Dr Elmes takes samples of the prostate through the perineum (skin). This technique completely removes the risk of potentially life threatening infections that are quite common with older style biopsy techniques (Transrectal).
Dr Elmes utilises pre-operative MRI to enhance his ability to target even the smallest possible lesions thereby giving the most accurate and best chance of finding prostate cancer if present.
The Artemis Device - Targeted Prostate Biopsy
Artemis is a device which allows biopsy site tracking with 3D ultrasound image and full colour model and fusion of real-time ultrasound with MRI.
Artemis semi-automatically computes gland volume and boundaries. This enhances tissue structure visualisation for improved planning and guidance.
Artemis provides several imaging enhancements to standard 2D ultrasound:
-
Greatly increases the ability to examine the prostate for abnormalities or suspicious areas which may need sampling
-
Advanced needle navigation and tracking
-
Sophisticated recording of actual biopsy sites sampled; sites can be revisited at any time
-
View and overlay previous prostate gland volumes and biopsy locations
The advent of MRI has improved detection rates as it allows Urologists to perform multiple biopsies in area of interest, however there is still a large element of guess work in lining up the MRI picture with the ultrasound biopsy picture. Gold Coast Urologist has been instrumental in advancing the accuracy of detecting prostate cancer by pioneering the utilisation of the Artemis computer targeted biopsy machine. Computer targeting fuses the pre-operative MRI images with the intra-operative ultrasound image and effectively lines up precisely where biopsies should be taken, thus mitigating human error.
-
MRI-US targeted fusion
-
Allows diagnosis of serious tumors not found with conventional biopsy
-
Helps to avoid detection of insignificant tumors
-
Provides a method for repeat biopsy of specific tumor bearing sites for men in active surveillance; and
-
Creates an opportunity for study of focal therapy.
-
Targeted biopsies are several times more sensitive for detection of prostate cancer than non-targeted, systematic biopsies
