Management of patients with high-risk and advanced prostate cancer in the Middle East: resource-stratified consensus recommendations.

PURPOSE: Prostate cancer care in the Middle East is highly variable and access to specialist multidisciplinary management is limited. Academic tertiary referral centers offer cutting-edge diagnosis and treatment; however, in many parts of the region, patients are managed by non-specialists with limited resources. Due to many factors including lack of awareness and lack of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening, a high percentage of men present with locally advanced and metastatic prostate cancer at diagnosis. The aim of these recommendations is to assist clinicians in managing patients with different levels of access to diagnostic and treatment modalities. METHODS: The first Advanced Prostate Cancer Consensus Conference (APCCC) satellite meeting for the Middle East was held in Beirut, Lebanon, November 2017. During this meeting a consortium of urologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologist and imaging specialists practicing in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia voted on a selection of consensus questions. An additional workshop to formulate resource-stratified consensus recommendations was held in March 2019. RESULTS: Variations in practice based on available resources have been proposed to form resource-stratified recommendations for imaging at diagnosis, initial management of localized prostate cancer requiring therapy, treatment of castration-sensitive/naïve advanced prostate cancer and treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer. CONCLUSION: This is the first regional consensus on prostate cancer management from the Middle East. The following recommendations will be useful to urologists and oncologists practicing in all areas with limited access to specialist multi-disciplinary teams, diagnostic modalities and treatment resources.

Laparoscopic treatment of pudendal nerve and artery entrapment improves erectile dysfunction in healthy young males.

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is increasingly becoming more common in young healthy males and is attributed mainly to psychogenic causes in these patients. Recent studies have reported that ED could be secondary to pudendal nerve or artery entrapment. This perspective assessed the efficacy of laparoscopic pudendal nerve and artery decompression in young patients suffering from refractory ED, associated to a pudendal nerve entrapment syndrome. After excluding patients with psychological ED and venous leakage, five young male patients with a history of both ED and pudendal nerve entrapment syndrome diagnosed based on the Nantes criteria were recruited. Pudendal nerve and artery release was performed using a laparoscopic transperitoneal approach. International Index for Erectile Function (IIEF-5) and erectile hardness score (EHS) improved significantly in all patients, 3 months after surgery. Pudendal nerve and artery entrapment could be therefore a reversible cause of ED in young healthy males, and its treatment by laparoscopic pudendal nerve and artery decompression seems to be safe and effective.

Bladder leiomyoma: Presentation, evaluation and treatment.

BACKGROUND: Bladder leiomyomas are benign mesenchymal neoplasms and very rare urinary tumours that represent <0.5% of all bladder tumours, with only 250 cases reported worldwide to date. The importance of recognising their characteristic features, leading to their correct treatment, is fundamental. Therefore, we reviewed reports of leiomyomas of the urinary bladder, their causes, clinical presentations, imaging methods and surgical management, updated to 2012. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed articles published in the USA, Europe and Asia, from 1953 to date, using PubMed, Medscape, Medline and the several major journals. We report areas of controversies and well-established guidelines. RESULTS: We reviewed 36 articles that confirmed, with a high level of evidence-based medicine, that the male to female ratio is equal, the cause of bladder leiomyomas remains unknown, and their most common presentation is obstructive uropathy; endovesical tumours are the most common. Their radiological diagnosis can be made by ultrasonography, computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. Complete surgical resection is a very effective treatment, associated with almost no recurrence. CONCLUSION: In symptomatic patients a complete surgical resection can give a very good outcome, with almost no recurrence.