Prostate Artery Embolization

If you have difficulty urinating or make frequent trips to the bathroom at night, there’s a good chance you need a prostate artery embolization. The physicians at Minimally Invasive Medical Group have extensive experience treating an enlarged prostate with a prostate embolization, a safe procedure that doesn’t affect sexual function. Request an appointment through online booking or call the office in Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, or Irvine, California, today if you need treatment for prostate problems.

What is prostate artery embolization?

Prostate embolization is a minimally invasive procedure to treat an enlarged prostate. During an embolization, your provider releases tiny particles into the arteries carrying blood to the prostate gland.

The particles stop blood flow to the prostate. As a result, the gland’s size decreases.

What should I know about the condition treated with prostate artery embolization?

Every man can develop an enlarged prostate (benign prostatic hyperplasia or BPH) because the gland keeps growing throughout their adult life. However, it only gets large enough to cause symptoms in about half of all men.

The tube carrying urine out of the body (the urethra) goes through the center of the prostate gland. As it enlarges, you may develop the following symptoms:

• Difficulty urinating
• Slow or weak urine stream
• Urine stream that stops and starts
• Frequent or urgent need to urinate
• Urinary incontinence (uncontrollable urine leakage)
• Dribbling after urination
• Waking during the night to urinate
• Inability to empty your bladder

A severely enlarged prostate can completely block the urethra, making it impossible to urinate and causing complications such as urinary tract infections. In advanced cases, the blocked urethra leads to bladder stones and kidney damage.

What happens during prostate artery embolization?

Your Minimally Invasive Medical Group provider gives you a sedative and applies a topical anesthetic. They then make a tiny incision in your thigh or wrist and insert a catheter (narrow, hollow tube) into an artery.

Using real-time imaging to see your blood vessels, they guide the catheter to the prostate gland artery and inject a solution containing microscopic particles into the blood vessel. The particles embed in the prostate, blocking blood flow to the gland.

After checking to make sure circulation in the treated arteries has stopped, your provider withdraws the catheter and finishes your procedure by putting a bandage over the incision (it’s so small you don’t need stitches).

Over the next few weeks, the prostate shrinks, taking pressure off the urethra and letting urine flow freely.

Does prostate artery embolization cause side effects?

Embolization causes far fewer side effects than other procedures for treating an enlarged prostate. Most notably, prostatic embolization doesn’t affect your sexual function. By comparison, other BPH treatments have a higher risk of causing erectile dysfunction. 

Call the office or book a consultation online if you have symptoms of an enlarged prostate.