NONSURGICAL TREATMENT EVALUATION IN BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERPLASIA PATIENTS

The development of new methods for treating benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) requires the choice of reliable criteria in order to assess their efficiency. It is, first of all, necessary to choose clinical as well as urodynamic criteria. Clinical criteria must be quantified and then gathered in scores, so that they can be compared. These changes, essential to the statistician, alter the true meaning of symptoms. The value of urodynamic parameters to 'measure' obstruction differs widely: the pressure/flow relationship as well as micturitional bladder pressure are probably the most reliable. Statistical data processing for both qualitative and quantitative variables, is still likely to alter the true meaning of these variables. This article takes a critical approach to all these problems, and also focuses on the real aim of the BPH treatment, which above all is to restore comfortable functional balance but not necessarily urodynamic performance.