Prostate artery embolization: increasing self-referrals and awareness of treatment options

Prostatic artery embolization (PAE) is a minimally invasive therapy performed as an elective outpatient procedure for lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) secondary to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Multiple studies have demonstrated the efficacy of PAE in reducing LUTS over the medium and long term (Pisco et al. 2016 ; Carnevale et al. 2020 ). PAE is transitioning from the research setting to implementation as a routine clinical procedure (Young and Golzarian 2019 ). The number of patients treated with PAE has grown in recent years, but the current literature has not well characterized awareness of PAE as a treatment option among patients. As PAE becomes more widespread, patients may not want to wait for a referral from a urologist or primary care physician, and instead self-refer to interventional radiology (IR) directly. IR practices in turn may need to engage with the patient community more directly and increase their online presence.