Mandelson ready to leave hospital after operation

Published on Friday 21 August 2009 21:01

LORD Mandelson is expected to be released from hospital today after surgery for a suspected enlarged prostate.

The Business Secretary and de facto deputy prime minister was said to be on "good form" after his treatment yesterday.

His stay in London's St Mary's Hospital followed his week-long stint of standing in for Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

A spokesman for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, yesterday made clear Lord Mandelson was expected to make a speedy recovery. "We expect him out tomorrow. It's been scheduled for some time," the spokesman said.

"The operation is over, and once we have heard from the surgeon, we will know exactly what it was. But all the expectations are it is an enlarged prostate gland."

Some 60 per cent of men over 60 have some form of enlarged prostate.

Lord Mandelson, still only 55, was also rushed to hospital the last time he was in the limelight, after his return to government in October. After a day in his job, he suffered severe abdominal pain - caused by kidney stones.

PROSTATE PROBLEMS COMMON

THE prostate is a small gland in the pelvis found only in men. Located between the penis and the bladder, its main function is to help with the production of semen.

Most common conditions affecting the prostate are enlargement, prostatitis (inflammation) and cancer.

Benign growth of the prostate, or benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), is very common, according to experts.

Affecting 60 per cent of men over 60, prostate enlargement can put pressure on the bladder and urethra and cause problems in passing urine. But treatment is only necessary if it affects a man's quality of life.

Reasons for the growth are not fully understood.

But interrupted urine flow caused by an enlarged prostate does not mean a sufferer has cancer, says Professor Stephen Langley, consultant urologist at the Royal Surrey County Hospital. If certain tests have ruled that out, a patient undergoes more tests and examinations before treatments are decided.

Drugs are available, such as prostate-relaxing medication, but if they do not work or there are side-effects, surgery is the next option.