Four radiological organizations have endorsed prostatic artery embolization (PAE) as a safe, effective, and minimally invasive treatment for enlarged prostate in a joint statement in the May issue of the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.
The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR), the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE), the French Society of Radiology (SFR), and the British Society of Interventional Radiology (BSIR) concur that PAE should be presented as a treatment option for appropriately selected patients (JVIR, May 2019, Vol. 60:5, pp. 627-637).
The position paper recommends the procedure as a "valuable minimally invasive option for patients who cannot tolerate or who have failed medical therapy, and those who are poor surgical candidates or refuse invasive surgery," and as a "definitive treatment option for multiple underserved patient groups who may not have satisfactory urologic treatment options."
Older patients with multiple medical conditions, very large prostates, bleeding from the prostate, long-term bladder catheters, and who cannot stop anticoagulation therapies are among those who could benefit from the procedures, the authors wrote.
PAE also has been endorsed by the Asia Pacific Society of Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology, Canadian Association for Interventional Radiology, Chinese College of Interventionalists, Interventional Radiology Society of Australasia, Japanese Society of Interventional Radiology, and Korean Society of Interventional Radiology.
