"A minimally invasive procedure that cuts off the blood https supply to an enlarged prostate https may help when medications https fail and it appears to provide good symptom control without sexual dysfunction a new study shows. The procedure involves using a tiny catheter that is threaded through arteries https near the groin to reach the vessels that supply the prostate https with blood https These vessels are then blocked with particles the size of a grain of sand. A similar procedure is sometimes used to treat another kind of benign growth uterine fibroids https in women. It was my inspiration  uterine fibroids https Its the same kind of growth says study researcher Joao Martins Pisco MD chief radiologist at Hospital Pulido Valente and director of interventional radiology at St. Louis Hospital both in Lisbon Portugal. The results are excellent. In a small pilot study most men were able to leave the hospital four to eight hours after the procedure which is called prostatic artery embolization PAE researchers report. PAE reduced the symptoms of frequency and urgency of urination without causing side effects like incontinence https sexual dysfunction retrograde ejaculation ejaculation into the bladder https or bleeding. Despite the promising results of this small trial experts said it was far too early to recommend PAE to patients. There are a lot of questions. We really dont know what the short and longterm success or complication rates are says Anthony Malizia Jr. MD president and director of the Malizia Clinic a nonprofit urology specialty center in Atlanta. We dont know how well these particles are localized to the prostate or if theyre going to the pelvis or other parts of the body. Malizia notes that in one serious complication reported in the study the particles appeared to migrate and kill a small part of the bladder https wall. The authors report that the dead tissue required surgical removal. The study was presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology annual meeting in Chicago. Living With Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy When the prostate normally a walnutsized gland grows in mid to late life it can clamp down on the urethra decreasing or shutting off the flow of urine and causing many sleep https trips to the bathroom. The condition is called benign prostatic hyperplasia https BPH httpsmen.webmd.comprostateenlargementbph and its estimated to affect as many as  million American men. Medications can sometimes help but for some the problem requires a procedure to reduce the size of the prostate. The gold standard for treating BPH https is considered to be less invasive surgery called transurethral resection of the prostate TURP where under anesthesia doctors thread a heated wire loop up through the penis https and use it to cut and remove sections of the prostate. Side effects from TURP may include retrograde ejaculation bleeding incontinence https or leakage and difficulty having an erection. Experts say however that most men who could have erections before their procedure will be able to have them after. Surgery doesnt usually restore lost sexual function however. TURP is performed in  of cases where treatment is needed but sometimes the prostate is too large and requires open surgery. Less commonly some centers are offering newer procedures using lasers to vaporize prostate tissue or microwave heat therapy to ablate tissue thats blocking the urethra. Looking at a Different Option For the trial researchers in Portugal enrolled  men who ranged in age from  to  with severely enlarged prostates who had tried medications but still had not gotten relief from their symptoms after at least six months on the drugs. Overall . of procedures were considered to be technical successes meaning that doctors were able to seal off at least one out of four of the arteries that feed the prostate. An average of nine months after their procedures researchers reported that  men had excellent improvement. Six men had slight improvement but needed no medications. And one had no improvement because the procedure couldnt be completed. Overall improvement on a scale that ranks symptom severity from  to  points was about  points. On average the men started with a score of  and improved to a score of  researchers say. That would be a pretty impressive response to therapy and comparable to a lot of other things that have gained traction and become part of our armamentarium for treating BPH https says Stephen M. Schatz MD assistant professor at Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who was not involved in the study. If the results are reproducible and real that represents something promising. There were eight clinical failures Pisco says meaning that the men only had slight or no improvement after their procedures. Despite the fact that more testing needs to be done to determine safety and longterm results Pisco says hes optimistic that this will turn out to be a good choice for many men. If the patients know about it PAE they dont want to be treated by surgery. They know about the complications Pisco says adding In two or three years this will be the first option I believe. Theres a lot of interest. This study was presented at a medical conference. The findings should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the peer review process in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal."