title: Effects of electroacupuncture on benign prostate hyperplasia patients with lower urinary tract symptoms: a single-blinded, randomized controlled trial.
abstract: We tested the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients. A total of 42 BPH patients with LUTS were randomly assigned to either the EA group (EG), received 2 Hz EA for 20 min twice/week for a total of twelve treatments, or a sham EA group (CG), received sham EA. The increase of voiding volume, average flow rate, and maximal flow rate in the EG were 32.2 ± 104.4 mL, 1.2 ± 1.6 mL/sec, and 2.3 ± 3.7 mL/sec, respectively, from baseline value (before EA) using the measurement of an uroflowmetry. These increases were greater than -37.9 ± 120.4, -0.22 ± 2.7, and -0.3 ± 4.3, respectively, in the CG (P = .038, .026, and .030, resp.). The changes of prostate special antigen and international prostatic symptom score were not significantly different between two groups (P = .573, .175, resp.), suggesting the clinical improvement of 2 Hz EA was quite limited to the LUTS of patients with BPH.
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan 71004, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jung-Sheng
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Kun-Hung
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Wen-Chi
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jiann-Shyan
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Her
authors.forename: Ching-Liang
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Hsieh