Background and therapy of benign prostatic hyperplasia in male dogs: a literature review

Abstract

BPH hyperplasia is a non-infectious enlargement of the prostate and is the most common prostatic disease in dogs. 80% of dogs,which are older than 5 years develop BPH but it can also start in young years, where hyperplasia already appears before the gland reaches the full development. (Johnston et al. 2000; Brendler et al. 1983). The prostate is the most important accessory gland, and in dog beside the ductus deferents also the only existing one. The prostate produces during ejaculation a proteolytic solution to liquify the semen and the secretion of the prostate also modify the vaginal environment for the sperm survival. The prostate consist of a corpus with three lobes and a sulcus and it surrounds the uretha from lateral to ventral (Smith, 2008; Nickel, 1996;König et Liebich, 2008). In case of BPH, the prostate enlarges due to increased cellular proliferation and decreased apoptosis and causes LUTS due to obstruction of the urethra. A lot of dogs don’t show any clinical signs in the beginning of BPH, but mostly one of the first symptoms are preputial bloody discharge, hematospermia, fecal evacuation problems, compression of the rectum, hematuria, pain in the caudal region of the abdomen etc. (Johnson, 2006; Romagnoli, 2007; Weiss, 2007; Smith, 2008; Holzmann, 2001) In later stages perineal hernia could occur, prostatitis, systemic and locomotor disorders. The cause of BPH is till now not fully understood but beside the age, hormones are an important factor for the development of BPH. One of the most mentioned hormones in case of BPH is DHT. DHT stimulates growth and secretion of the epithelial cells and about 90% of total prostatic androgens is in the form of DHT. Beside DHT also GF, E and HPr are known to play an important role in BPH development.(Andriole et al.,2004; Krakowski et al.,2015; Invest 1992). According to the therapy, a lot of medical treatment are used in BPH, but castration is the the only treatment which resolves the problem completely and is the kindest and speediest treatment without returning to the pretreatment prostate size like in the other medical treatments, which are because of that, only short time solutions with a lot of side effects.