Has anyone out there had a "Prostate Artery Embolization??

William, my radioligist told me the same thing about a slight risk of placing the beads in the wrong place. Ever since he told me that I lie awake at night worrying about my bum falling off! 

:-)

Don't know if you are aware of this but I had a "PAE" back on Sept. 10th, 2014.  After 7 1/2 months now Iam quite dissapointed.  The whole reason I went with the PAE was because I was told that my nighttime bathroom frequency would go from 4 to 2.  That never happened.  Iam averaging 4 times a night now.  If I drink "nothing" after 4 pm I might get lucky and only get up 3 times.  Still way too much.  Iam off the Tamsulosin and Avodart atleast.  Iam now "exploring" the possibility of a surgery such as the ones that are discussed on this site.  Glad yours went well. 

Chuck, I agree with you that 4 times is way too much and you have every right to be disappointed. I am not hanging all my hopes on PAE. The radiologist I will be using has only done two....one highly successful and the other not so good. I am assuming only a 50% chance of a very successful outcome. If it doesn't work out I will go to HoLEP . There's a guy in Sydney who has done over 600 of these but I want to try the PAE first.

Would you consider having a second shot at it? 

When they embolised my AVM it took four tries for success. It saved my life. 

Yes, I would consider a "2nd shot" at it.  But keep in mind my BC-BS insurance policy wouldn't cover a dime of it.  It cost me a little over $10,000 out of my own pocket back last Sept.  I may email the Interventional Radiologist who performed it on me and see what he says.  Its a plane flight away as he is in Virginia and Iam in the midwest.  In other words a huge "inconvenience".

HI Chuck,  I too haven't had the results I was hoping for, but I wouldn't trade the improvement I did get for the money back.  My path now is to discover exactly where the remaining blockage is.  I had a urodynamics test and it revealed useful data that I am following up on.  The way I look at it is until I know where the slowing is occuring, I don't want to take any more surgical action.  The anatomy is: Bladder-Bladder neck (smooth muscle sphincter)-Prostate- Skelital muscle sphincter-ureathra-toilet.  Somewhere in that path the flow is being held up. Once I know which of these structures is doing the slowing, I can explore a solution.  After my PAE, things improved a little and my urodynamics says the sphinter muscles are relaxing and the bladder pressure is there.  So for me, the next thing to do is a systosopy and see if the channel trough the prostate is in fact open or not.  If it is, then it could be that even though my brain is sending signals to the two sphintors, one of them may not really be letting go.  If the prostate is still blocked, then I may consider a second PAE.  I have an appointment with a neurologist to talk specifically about the nerves and the signals they are suppposed to be sending, Just in case there is a better test to reveal that part of the process.   It just helps to know where the problem actually is. Unfortunately, some urologists don't want to do the testing to really find out.

Hi Bruce;  Would an MRI do anything to help you find out the problem???

It could be that all the pathways are clear but that your bladder has been weakened over time by retention. 

Yes.  I had an MRI afetr the PAE and was able to approximate a 38% reduction in the size of the prostate.  What it doesn't tell us is whether the reduction was on the interior or mostly the exterior of the prostate.  Given the modest improvement in flow, I think I got some of both.  The scope should tell us just how "open" the channel through the prostate is.  What no one has been able to explain so far is what could have caused the sudden and significant reduction in flow I had 28 years ago.  I lived with it until I reached my 50's when I assume my prostate began to grow and make things even worse.  If I have rolled back the prostate growth, then I may be left with the original problem.  It will be mid june before I can have the scope procedure so I'll have to wait to see. 

It is possible, but the urodynamics test showed good bladder pressure (at least at the time of the test).

My flow is not as good as I expected and is intermittent. Cystoscopy shows everything to be OK so the suggestion was possibly down to the bladder muscle.

I asked about possible tests but the Urologist told me that the urodynamics test is not very accrate.

Dr. Pisco recommended a urodynamics test. My only concern is that I have recurrent prostatitis from the cystoscopy. It stirred something up. I 'm afraid catheters inserted through the urethra might make matters worse. I have an appointment tomorrow with my regular doctor. My urologist doesn't do invasive urodynamics, just bladder ultrasound and PVR.

You would think that with all the men with these issues, somone could have come up with a way to accurately measure these things.  How difficult can it be to measure fluid pressure ina tube??

My urologist office said along the same lines, involved for the patient and not useful enough information.

You could always turn it into a trip to Europe by visting Pisco in Portugal.  It's about $5k there.

Dr. Rotimi Johnson at St. Louis University in St. Louis was doing PAE for $8000.  I have to call again and get this updated.  He has done double digit PAEs.

Not sure if I want to go and get a "REDO".  If Dr. Bagla had done it right the first time that would have been nice!!!

Pisco has some sort of discounted redo policy for his patients. It might be worth a shot to hit him up and see if he thinks he can improve your situation.  Plus, the dollar is strong now, so you could make a nice vacation out of it. 

Went to St. Louis University Hospital yesterday for a consultation with a doctor that does PAE there.  They actually have 4 doctors that do it.  He said they have done 20 patients so far since early last year.  Half of those patients were doctors so that tells you a lot.   He said that they can't advertise PAE because it has not been approved by the FDA.  It is by word of mouth.  Was told they have good success getting private insurance to pay.  Was impressed with the doctor and nurse that saw me.  They are getting more and more interest in this procedure.  They are getting contacts from Europe.  The doctor said that he has an upgraded process for opening up the very small arteries at the prostate.  Hopefully they will get my insurance to cover it, but this will be a task.  This is the only place that I have contacted that was confident getting private insurance to pay.

Camster,

Good luck. Hope PAE works out for you. It was life changing for me. I have spoken with many others who have had great success also. I did a clinical trial at UNC Chapel Hill. That was free. They do do some PAE outside of trial as well. I referred someone recently who is getting one that is not in the trial. I hope that the FDA will approve soon as this is really one of the best options available especially if you have a very large prostate. Mine was 130 g.

I've been reading your posts.  So happy for you!  I hope my insurance will cover it.  Lot of it is about coding and presenting a strong case for the procedure.  For me, PAE is the safest way to go.  You studied and found the same thing.  When the doctor told me that half his patients were doctors, it says that the ones in the know want this procedure.