An Audit Of Analgesia Requirements For High-Dose-Rate Prostate Brachytherapy

High-dose-rate (HDR) prostate brachytherapy, as performed at our institution, requires the insertion of multiple transperineal catheters under anaesthesia (hereafter referred to as the 'intraoperative' period), after which the patient is allowed to recover from anaesthesia and the treatment is planned and carried out with afterloading of the radioactive source in several treatment sessions over the course of two days (hereafter the 'postoperative' period). The catheters are kept in position by a template sutured to the perineum. At the time of introduction of this new therapy at our institution, we assumed the catheters themselves, the template and the urinary catheter, along with potential bladder spasm, would cause at least moderate p...