BPH, or Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia is another term for an enlarged prostate. There are several ways to treat these symptoms, including the following:

• Medicines taken by mouth to make it easier to urinate
• Prescribed by your doctor
• Surgery to remove part of the prostate
• Performed by a surgeon called a Urologist
• Procedure called a Prostate Artery Embolization (PAE) to shrink the prostate
• Performed by a specialist called an Interventional Radiologist (IR)
  

PAE is a minimally invasive, image-guided procedure (MIIP) to shrink an enlarged prostate to make it easier to pass urine. It works by using special materials to block some of the blood vessels to the prostate. This causes less blood to flow the prostate so that it shrinks over time. The shrunken prostate does not block the flow of urine as much. 

For most patients, the prostate will shrink by approximately 20-40% over the 6 months following PAE.

What are the benefits of PAE compared to other treatments?

Typically, patients suffering from symptoms due to an enlarged prostate are first treated with medicines. If medicines cannot control the symptoms well enough, other options are surgery or PAE.

Surgery to remove part of the prostate (called a TURP) or all of the prostate (called a prostatectomy) can have side effects, including the following:

• Impotence (also called erectile dysfunction, or difficulty maintaining an erection)
• Problems with ejaculation
• Urinary incontinence (accidents)

PAE is a newer nonsurgical procedure that avoids these side effects.  There are clinical trials evaluating this technique in the United States. It is available at select medical centers.



Up to 80% of men report improvement of symptoms after PAE. They usually notice improvement starting 1-2 months after the procedure.