A new interventional radiology treatment, prostatic artery embolization, may bring hope to men with debilitating symptoms caused by an enlarged prostate, say the group of researchers who pioneered its use. The findings were presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 37th Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco, Calif.
"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 TURPand 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 Clnicas Hospital of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of So 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.
"More than a quarter of a million men undergo surgery for an enlarged prostate every year, at an estimated annual costs of over $1 billion per year because current therapies including medication just aren't working for them," commented Ziv J Haskal, M.D., FSIR, one of numerous Society of Interventional Radiology members who traveled to Brazil to learn about the treatment and to begin the process that may bring this treatment to the United States. "I saw firsthand how these men responded to tre
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| Contact: Ellen Acconcia eacconcia@sirweb.org 703-460-5582 Society of Interventional Radiology Source:Eurekalert |
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