Efficacy and safety of tamsulosin for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia: a meta analysis.
BACKGROUND
Pharmacological therapy has been considered as the first-line treatment for patients with uncomplicated benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tamsulosin compared with a placebo for treating BPH.


METHODS
The randomized placebo-controlled trials (RCT) of tamsulosin for the treatment of BPH from all over the world were searched. PubMed, Ovid, ScienceDirect, EBSCO, CBM, and CNKI were searched, as well as a manual search of four Chinese journals: Chinese Journal of Andrology, National Journal of Andrology, Chinese Journal of Urology, and Journal of Clinical Urology was also performed. Two reviewers independently screened the studies for eligibility, evaluated the quality and extracted the data from the eligible studies, with confirmation by cross-checking. Divergences of opinions were settled by discussion. Meta-analysis was processed by Rev Man 5.0 software, fail-safe number was performed by SAS8.0 software.


RESULTS
Seven RCTs involving 2455 men met the inclusion criteria. The basic characteristics of patients were comparable in all the studies. Comparing three common criteria: international prostate symptom score (IPSS)/Boyarsky symptom score, maximum flow rate (MFR), quality of life (QOL), tamsulosin was better than placebo at improving IPSS and MFR, with no significant difference in the QOL. Adverse events of tamsulosin also showed no significant difference from the placebo group (Z=1.62, P=0.10, OR=1.22, 95% CI 0.96-1.54).


CONCLUSIONS
Tamsulosin is better than placebo at improving IPSS and MFR. Adverse events of tamsuloisn show no significant difference compared with placebo. More high quality trials with larger samples and longer follow-up are proposed.
Ren
Rui-min
RM
Department of Surgery, Hospital of Tianjin Port, Tianjin 300456, China.
Kou
Min
M
Lan
Xiao-xu
XX
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011470:Prostatic Hyperplasia / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D013449:Sulfonamides / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000077409:Tamsulosin
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D013449:Sulfonamides; D000077409:Tamsulosin