Green light laser procedures, often misspelled green light lazer, are performed to remove the common urology problem known as male urinary retention that manifests symptoms such as frequent urination, cloudy urine, a weak stream, urinary tract infection (cystitis), painful urination, burning when urinating (also burning after urination), acute urinary retention, and overflow incontinence.

Green light laser surgery helps stop more serious urinary problems from occurring. Benign prostatic hyperplasia can alter the physiology of the urinary system that causes disabling and even deadly consequences. Normally the prostate slowly gets bigger from forty years of age and up. Year after year subtly a man’s urination patterns change, which manifest into the common male voiding symptoms listed above. Unfortunately men are simply rolling the dice hoping that the serious disabling and fatal diseases and disorders do not hit them, because when they do, it is too late to correct them.

Untreated prostate enlargement may stretch out the bladder causing a floppy bladder. During the years of urinary retention the bladder can start to hold more and more as the year’s progress. As our nervous system gets used to having a larger and larger volume of urine in our bladder, it no longer sends the signals from the lining of the bladder to the brain to indicate it is time to urinate. This signal is known as compliance (in urological terminology). The normal bladder sends signals to our brain to urinate with one and a half cups (360) to 2 cups (480 ml) inside it. Men with a floppy bladder may have 3 cups (750 ml) to 4 cups (a liter/quart) of urine in their bladder, or even more, and they still do not feel a strong desire to urinate. The other part of the floppy bladder problem, is when the bladder stretches out it also creates havoc on the bladder muscles making it even harder, to create enough squeezing pressure to get the urine to pass out of the passage that has been narrowed and squeezed shut by the big prostate. When the muscle tone of the bladder is lost to such a degree it is difficult, although possible, to get back the normal bladder function. Fixing a floppy bladder may include catheterization, medication, bladder training, and greenlight laser vaporization (to stop the urinary retention).