The effect of age on pain perception among patiens undergoing systematic ultrasonography guided transrectal prostate biopsy

Purpose: To investigate the effect of age on the pain levels caused by placing the transrectal probe and biopsy needle into the prostate tissue in transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy (TRUS-PB). Materials and methods: The study included 308 patients. These patients into groups based on age: Group 1 had 103 patients aged 65 or younger, Group 2 had 100 patients aged 66-70, and Group 3 had 105 patients over 70. 11 ml 2% lidocaine gel was administered intrarectally to the patients included in the study as anesthesia. Thirty minutes after the biopsy procedure, we measured each patient's pain using the VAS score, which ranged from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain). Patients were asked for pain level during the insertion of the rectal probe and the maneuvers ( VAS-p) and the pain level during the insertion of the needle through the prostate to take a biopsy (VAS-b). Results: VAS-p score was lower in Group.2 than in the other age groups. When the groups were evaluated in terms of VAS-b, no significant difference was observed between the 3 groups. Across all patients, the pain felt during probe insertion was greater than the pain felt during biopsy and this was statistically significant (p