Prostate Treatment Backed: Advanced Surgical Intervention, a...

Prostate Treatment Backed: Advanced Surgical Intervention, a San Clemente company that manufactures a balloon dilation system for treating benign enlargements of the prostate gland, got some encouraging news from studies presented at a recent meeting of the American Urological Assn. in Toronto.

Until a few years ago, treatment involved inpatient prostate surgery, but since then procedures have been developed in which a balloon is inserted through the urethra and inflated to push away the obstruction.

A study presented at the Toronto meeting by a member of the Rocky Mountain Urological Society showed that both procedures produced equally positive results in reducing symptoms of enlarged prostates. Other studies showed that the system produced by Advanced Surgical Intervention--which uses different sizes of balloons depending on the size of the prostate--appeared to be more effective than systems that use only one size of balloon.