A butterfly implant to treat prostate trouble
AN IMPLANT shaped like a butterfly could help millions of men with enlarged prostates. The metal device, roughly the size of a 50 cent coin, works by forcing swollen prostate tissue away from the walls of the urethra — the tube that carries urine from the bladder out of the body.
This reduces pressure on the walls of the urethra so that it opens up, helping men go to the loo. It could be a major breakthrough in t he t r eatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia ( BPH), which affects one in four men over t he age of 40 in I r e l and.
The prostate is a walnut-shaped gland surrounding the urethra which produces components of semen. At different stages in a man’s life, it grows — first during puberty and then from the age of 25 until, i n many cases, the prostate presses on the urethra.
The first sign of BPH is usually trouble passing urine. Untreated, it can cause kidney damage or bladder stones and seriously affect quality of life. Treatment often involves drugs, but they can have side- effects. Around 450 men a year have surgery to correct the problem. However, this carries a risk of impotence and urinary incontinence, as surgery targets areas full of nerves that control THE these functions.
new Butterfly Medical device could be an effective surgery-free option. With the patient under sedation, doctors insert a catheter — a thin plastic tube — through the urethra and f eed a thin wire connected to the butterfly implant through it.
The i mplant i s made f rom nitinol, a ‘memory metal’ which at room temperature can be easily compressed to f i t through a catheter, but at body temperature expands back to i ts original shape.
Using a camera, the collapsed implant is navigated down the urethra and fixed into position in the area squeezed by the swollen prostate.
When the device is released, it springs back to its ‘open’ position — like a butterfly with its wings spread — and instantly prises open the urethra so urine can flow freely once more.
The procedure takes around ten minutes and the gadget is held in place by the pressure it applies to the urethra wall.
The device is designed to remain in that spot permanently, but can be removed under l ocal anaesthetic if necessary.
A clinical trial involving 30 men with BPH is under way at four hospitals in Israel. Each man will be fitted with the implant and monitored for at least a year.
The results are due next year.
The device has been granted approval in Europe, meaning that it complies with health and safety regulations, and could be rolled out across public and private hospitals here this year.
Jeremy Ockrim, a consultant urological surgeon, says similar devices have made some difference in the past, but they failed to match the success rates of conventional surgery.
‘I would recommend something like this to my patients if they were not suitable f or, or able to withstand, conventional surgery,’ he adds.
TAKING a vitamin D supplement every two weeks could slow the rate at which the prostate becomes enlarged with age, a condition known as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), reports the journal Clinical Nutrition. Researchers gave 108 men with early-stage BPH either a fortnightly dose of the vitamin or no treatment. The results showed the men who were given nothing had significantly larger prostates. It’s thought the effects may be due to vitamin D’s antiinflammatory properties.