AUA guidelines give a strong recommendation to the use of 5-alpha reductase inhibitors alone or in combination with alpha-blockers as a treatment option to prevent progression of LUTS/BPH and/or reduce the risks for urinary retention and the need for future prostate-related surgery.
Irrespective of comorbid erectile dysfunction, the AUA guidelines suggest that 5 mg of daily tadalafil should be discussed as a treatment option. However, clinicians should not offer the combination of low-dose (5 mg) daily tadalafil (a phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor) with alpha-blockers because it offers no advantages in symptom improvement over either agent alone.
The guidelines suggest that 5-alpha reductase inhibitors in combination with an alpha-blocker should be offered as a treatment option only to patients with LUTS that are associated with demonstrable prostatic enlargement, as judged by a prostate volume > 30 mL on imaging, a prostate-specific antigen level > 1.5 ng/dL, or palpable prostate enlargement on digital rectal examination.
Learn more about medical treatment of LUTS/BPH.
This Fast Five Quiz was excerpted and adapted from the Medscape articles Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH), Overactive Bladder, and Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) and Cystitis (Bladder Infection) in Females.
Follow Medscape on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube
Medscape © 2022 WebMD, LLC
Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.
Cite this: Bradley Schwartz. Fast Five Quiz: Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) - Medscape - Jul 20, 2022.
Comments