Following on from last week's news about new treatments for enlarged Prostrate, another new treatment was announced recently in America. This new radiology treatment called prostatic artery embolization may help men who experience urinary retention due to an enlarged prostate, say the researchers who pioneered its use.

“Having an enlarged prostate is very common in many men over the age of 50, and these new findings provide hope for those who might not be candidates for transurethral resection of the prostate, or TURP—and may allow them to avoid serious complications that sometime result from surgery, such as impotence, retrograde ejaculation and urinary incontinence. This could mean that more men have a chance at getting their lives back,” said Francisco Cesar Carnevale, M.D. Ph.D., professor and chief of the interventional radiology section at the Hospital das Clínicas Hospital of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil.

A man’s prostate can slowly grow larger with age due to a noncancerous process called benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH.

In many men this enlargement can compress the urethra and cause urination and bladder problems such as dribbling at the end of urinating, an inability to urinate, incomplete emptying of the bladder, incontinence, and having a strong and sudden urge to urinate or a weak urine stream. For these men, symptoms can cause a marked decrease in quality of life, said Carnevale.

“I saw firsthand how these men responded to treatment. With the possibility of faster recovery—on an outpatient basis—and with no bladder catheters, reduced symptoms, improved urination and fewer potential side effects, prostatic artery embolization could signal a bold new change in accepted prostate therapy,” added Haskal, a professor of radiology and surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.

Carnevale explained “Interventional radiologists have always pioneered the use of minimally invasive treatments for many disease states. Interventional radiologists have used embolization, where a catheter is used to deliver tiny beads to block blood flow to a target area, for many years to treat uterine fibroids, on an outpatient basis, with very few complications. Applying this same principal to the prostate by embolizing or blocking the prostatic arteries, thereby reducing its size and releasing the pressure on the urethra so that a man is then able to void normally, seemed like a natural progression.”

“This study looked at results from men who suffered with acute urinary retention due to an enlarged prostate and who were treated,” noted Carnevale, who indicated that prior to embolization, all had medical treatment and urethral catheters and were waiting for surgery.

“After the treatment, we assessed quality of life and evaluated how well the urinary system was working. Clinical success was seen in 91 percent of those treated and technical success was evident in 75 percent of those treated,” he added.

Using a tiny one-millimeter diameter microcatheter threaded into the prostate arteries, 12 prostatic artery embolization procedures using resin microspheres as embolizing agents were performed on 11 individuals (ages 59-78 years; average age, 68.5 years) under local anesthesia. Magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound were also used to study the exact anatomy of the prostate.

Overall clinical improvement in lower urinary tract symptoms at the one-year mark was observed and corroborated by all patients. All of those treated also reported a high degree of satisfaction and increased quality of life after the treatment.

The findings were presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 37th Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco, USA.