Prostate artery embolization relieves urinary symptoms of an enlarged prostate without causing major side effects, according to research presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) annual meeting in Washington, DC.
Enlarged prostate, or benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), is one of the most common prostate problems, the society said. Prostate artery embolization is effective in men with an enlarged prostate who have acute urinary retention or the inability to voluntarily urinate and in patients with very large prostates who are normally treated with open surgery, according to SIR.
Dr. João Martins Pisco of St. Louis Hospital in Lisbon and colleagues performed prostate artery embolization on 1,000 men between March 2007 and March 2016. All of the men were evaluated short term (one, three, and six months), 807 patients were evaluated medium term (every six months between six months and three years), and 406 patients were evaluated long term (every year after three years). The procedure's success was measured by urine flow blockage, erectile dysfunction, size of the prostate, and the amount of urine left in the bladder after urination.
Pisco's group found that in the short term, the treatment had an 89% cumulative success rate. The 807 men evaluated at the medium-term mark had an 82% success rate, and the 406 patients measured at the long-term mark had a 78% success rate.
"Our results demonstrate that this minimally invasive treatment is successful in the long term and should always be presented to patients who are exploring options to resolve their benign prostatic hyperplasia," Pisco said in a statement released by SIR.
