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A comparative study on the use of tamsulosin versus alfuzosin in spontaneous micturition recovery after transurethral catheter removal in patients with benign prostatic growth

  • Urology - Original Paper
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Abstract

Purpose

To compare the efficacy and safety of tamsulosin and alfuzosin in patients with acute urinary retention (AUR) secondary to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

Methods

Ninety men with AUR due to BPH underwent urinary catheterization and were randomly assigned to treatment groups with tamsulosin 0.4 mg (37 patients), alfuzosin 10 mg (34 patients), and placebo (19 patients). After 4 days of the drug treatment, the catheters were removed, and the patients underwent trial without catheter (TWOC). A TWOC was considered successful if the patient had a voided volume >100 ml and post-void residual urine <200 ml.

Results

TWOC was successful in 16 patients (43.2 %) in the tamsulosin group, 12 patients (35.2 %) in the alfuzosin group, and 5 patients (26.3 %) in the placebo group. Logistic regression analysis showed that both drugs were equally effective and that the type of alpha-blocker was not a predictive factor for TWOC success (OR 1.137, 95 % CI 0.639–2.022) (p = 0.662).

Conclusion

Even though there were no statistically significant differences when comparing the three groups, tamsulosin showed a tendency to be more effective in a successful catheter removal. The lack of objective criteria in the definition of successful micturition leads us to believe that the effectiveness of both drugs reported in the literature is overestimated.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank nurse Ana Laura Valerio-Contreras for the efficient management of the subjects and Dr. Juan Carlos Lopez-Alvarenga for his contribution in the statistical analysis, both from the Hospital General de México, Mexico. We also wish to thank Dr. José Guzman-Esquivel for reviewing the manuscript and Gusti Gould de Pineda for providing the English translation.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

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Correspondence to Miguel Maldonado-Ávila.

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Maldonado-Ávila, M., Manzanilla-García, H.A., Sierra-Ramírez, J.A. et al. A comparative study on the use of tamsulosin versus alfuzosin in spontaneous micturition recovery after transurethral catheter removal in patients with benign prostatic growth. Int Urol Nephrol 46, 687–690 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11255-013-0515-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11255-013-0515-y

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