With advancing years, around 40% of men experience troublesome urinary symptoms such as difficulty emptying the bladder or alternatively passing water very frequently — often having to get up during the night. These symptoms are usually caused by one of three problems; an enlarged prostate gland, weakness of the bladder muscle, or overactivity of the bladder muscle.To help decide on the best treatment, doctors need to know the pressure inside the bladder. Up to now this could only be measured by passing a tube down the penis into the bladder, an uncomfortable experience that can also lead to infection.

A recent Action Medical Research project enabled this research team to develop a simple machine that measures bladder pressure with a small inflatable cuff around the penis, similar to having blood pressure checked. The next stage of the research is to find out whether this test can determine which treatment is best for individual men with urinary symptoms. The team will test 200 men who are having a prostate operation before and after surgery. It is hoped that the new test will improve the advice given to patients on the best treatment for their symptoms.