Multicentre study on the efficacy and tolerability of an extract of Serenoa repens in patients with chronic benign prostate conditions associated with inflammation.
BACKGROUND
Chronic benign prostate diseases are very common and certainly feature significantly in urological practice.The treatment of chronic benign prostate diseases is a common problem in clinical practice: few studies have been conducted in routine clinical practice to evaluate the efficacy of the treatments for this clinical condition. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of an extract of Serenoa repens (Permixon) in the treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in patients with chronic benign prostate diseases with associated inflammation, also taking into consideration the influence of treatment on sexual function and, therefore, on patients' quality of life.


METHODS
All the 591 eligible subjects were evaluated on entering the study; after a screening visit, including medical history, physical examination, physical examination and digital rectal examination (DRE) and laboratory tests, the patients underwent uroflowmetry. The subjects under investigation were also asked to complete the IPSS, NIH-CPSI and IIEF-5 questionnaires, for the purpose of evaluating urinary symptoms and erectile function in relation to sexual activity in the previous 6 months.


RESULTS
The analysis of the uroflowmetry results showed that treatment with extract of Serenoa repens distinctly improves bladder voiding and lower urinary tract symptoms, as highlighted also by the improvement in the scores for the IPSS and NIH-CPSI questionnaires which serve as a basis for evaluating the urinary symptoms of patients with prostatic hyperplasia and chronic prostatitis respectively. The results also suggest that using an extract of Serenoa repens for 6 months in patients with chronic benign prostate diseases gives rise to an improvement in erectile function, as demonstrated by the increase in the scores for the IIEF-5 questionnaire after 6 months of treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study demonstrate how treatment for 6 months with an extract of Serenoa repens in routine clinical practice gives rise to a statistically significant improvement in Qmax values and in the IPSS, NHI-CPSI and IIEF-5 questionnaire scores, resulting not only in an improvement in urinary symptoms but also in an overall improvement in patients' quality of life.
Villa Tiberia Clinic, Urology Department, Rome, Italy. roberto.giulianelli@virgilio.it
Roberto
R
Giulianelli
Stefano
S
Pecoraro
Giuseppe
G
Sepe
Rosario
R
Leonardi
Barbara Cristina
BC
Gentile
Luca
L
Albanesi
Stefano
S
Brunori
Luca
L
Mavilla
Francesco
F
Pisanti
Renato
R
Giannella
Patrizia
P
Morello
Domenico
D
Tuzzolo
Mario
M
Coscione
Fabio
F
Galasso
Tammaro
T
D'Angelo
Paolo
P
Ferravante
Emilio
E
Morelli
Antonio
A
Miragliuolo
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008517:Phytotherapy; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011470:Prostatic Hyperplasia / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011472:Prostatitis / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D028024:Serenoa
D010936:Plant Extracts