TUESDAY, March 29 (HealthDay News) -- Prostatic artery embolization (PAE) results in symptom improvement similar to that of transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) among patients with symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), without the risks related to TURP such as sexual dysfunction, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology, held from March 26 to 31 in Chicago.
Joao Martins Pisco, M.D., of the Hospital Pulido Valente and St. Louis Hospital in Lisbon, Portugal, and colleagues evaluated the short- and medium-term results of PAE in 84 men aged 52 to 85 years with symptomatic BPH, who had failed other medical treatments for at least six months.
After nine months of follow-up, on average, the investigators found PAE to be technically successful in 98.5 percent of the patients, with 77 men demonstrating "excellent" improvement, six men showing "slight improvement" but requiring no medications, and one man experiencing no improvement because he received an incomplete embolization. In addition, most men were passing urine less frequently two hours after PAE. The investigators also found no sexual dysfunction following PAE, and one-quarter of patients reported experiencing improvement in sexual function. The researchers noted that results were better with 100 µm polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) particles than with 200 µm PVA particles.
"While the gold standard treatment for enlarged prostates has been TURP, minimally invasive prostatic artery embolization is safe, performed under local anesthesia, and has comparable clinical results -- without TURP's limitations and risks," Pisco said in a statement.
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