Efficacy of 0.4 mg tamsulosin monotherapy in patients with moderate-to-severe lower urinary tract symptoms

Purpose: To evaluate efficacy of 0.4 mg tamsulosin monotherapy in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia with moderate-to-severe International Prostate Symptom Score. Material and methods: From May 2015 to May 2017, 102 patients were analyzed, retrospectively. The patients were classified into three groups according to the combination of medication (tamsulosin 0.4 mg vs tamsulosin 0.4 mg + solifenacin 5 mg vs tamsulosin 0.4 mg + mirabegron 50 mg). Baseline characteristics (e.g. age, body weight, height, and underlying medical disease) were collected. International Prostate Symptom Score, prostate specific antigen, prostate volume, peak urinary flow rate (Qmax), voided volume, and post-voided volume before after treatment were evaluated. Results: We classified and analyzed the patients into three groups depending on the medication. And there were no significant differences between all parameters among the groups. Voided volume at 3 months after treatment in each group was 170.54 +/- 125.83, 121.55 +/- 46.19, and 274.63 +/- 132.30 (p = 0.019). Differences of voiding symptom score and difference of post-voided volume among the groups before after treatment was 5.00 +/- 5.42, 1.92 +/- 3.92, and 0.11 +/- 5.11 and 8.37 +/- 34.32, 0.78 +/- 14.86, -33.63 +/- 28.58 (p = 0.037, p = 0.007). Conclusion: We think tamsulosin monotherapy will be feasible as a first-line therapy for the patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia who has struggled with moderate-to-severe lower urinary tract symptoms.