Correlating Patient Anxiety with Urinary Symptoms Before and After Holmium Laser Enucleation of the Prostate

Introduction and Objective: Preoperative anxiety has been shown to correlate with certain urinary symptoms in patients with certain types of voiding dysfunction, particularly overactive bladder. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if patient-reported anxiety correlates with pathologic characteristics, voiding symptoms, and objective metrics of bladder emptying in male patients undergoing holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP). Patients and Methods: We began collecting patient-reported anxiety scores (generalized anxiety disorder 7-item or GAD-7) in addition to patient-reported scores of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and erectile dysfunction (ED) starting in November 2018 for men with LUTS due to benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). We retrospectively evaluated the relationship between preoperative GAD-7 score with preoperative age, body mass index (BMI), preoperative urine flow metrics, preoperative postvoid residual (PVR), and preoperative symptom scores for LUTS (American Urological Association, BPH impact index [BII], and Michigan incontinence symptom index [MISI]) and ED (sexual health inventory for men and male sexual health questionnaire for ejaculatory dysfunction [MSHQ-EjD]). We then compared preoperative GAD-7 score with enucleated prostate weight, postoperative GAD-7 scores, postoperative urine flow metrics, postoperative PVR, and postoperative symptom scores for LUTS and ED. Results: We included 139 patients for analysis. The preoperative GAD-7 score positively correlated with preoperative BII scores ( r s  = 0.202, p  = 0.019), MISI total ( r s  = 0.260, p  = 0.002), and MISI bother ( r s  = 0.345, p  < 0.001) scores. Preoperative GAD-7 negatively correlated with preoperative MSHQ-EjD ( r s  = -0.191, p  = 0.031). Following HoLEP, all four of these correlations disappear. The GAD-7 score did not correlate with age, BMI, preoperative urine flow metrics, preoperative PVR, or other preoperative LUTS and ED symptom scores. In addition, preoperative GAD-7 score showed no correlation with enucleated prostate weight, postoperative urine flow metrics, postoperative PVR, and postoperative LUTS and ED symptom scores. Conclusions: Higher preoperative anxiety correlated with more severe preoperative urinary LUTS, particularly incontinence symptoms, in patients undergoing HoLEP. Following HoLEP, these symptoms improve regardless of patient anxiety level.