Clinical utility of the Prostate Health Index (phi) for biopsy decision management in a large group urology practice setting.

Background: Deciding when to biopsy a man with non-suspicious DRE findings and tPSA in the 4-10 ng/ml range can be challenging, because two-thirds of such biopsies are typically found to be benign. The Prostate Health Index (phi) exhibits significantly improved diagnostic accuracy for prostate cancer detection when compared to tPSA and %fPSA, however only one published study to date has investigated its impact on biopsy decisions in clinical practice.

Methods: An IRB approved observational study was conducted at four large urology group practices using a physician reported two-part questionnaire.

Impact of volume expansion on the efficacy and pharmacokinetics of liposome bupivacaine.

Liposome bupivacaine is a prolonged-release liposomal formulation of bupivacaine indicated for single-dose infiltration into the surgical site to produce postsurgical analgesia of longer duration than traditional local anesthetics. This review summarizes the available data on how volume expansion may impact the analgesic efficacy of liposome bupivacaine. The Phase II and III clinical studies that involved surgical site administration of liposome bupivacaine at various concentrations in different surgical settings revealed no apparent concentration-efficacy relationship.