Effect of Discontinuation of 5α-Reductase Inhibitors on Prostate Volume and Symptoms in Men With BPH: A Prospective Study

5α-Reductase Inhibitors for Treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Of these, 1 trial did not have useable data 10 because the absolute number of participants was not provided; we tried to contact the author, but did not receive a response. With the remaining 4 studies, [11][12][13][14] a total of 1879 patients were included in the final analysis. Of the 4 included studies, 1 was blinded 14 and 3 were openlabel.…”

“…Of the 4 included studies, 1 was blinded 14 and 3 were openlabel. [11][12][13] The method of randomization was not specified in any of the studies. The process of allocation concealment was also not discussed.…”

“…Two of the 4 studies used finasteride and dutasteride as monotherapies, 12,14 whereas concurrent ␣-blockers were used in the others. 11,13 None of the studies reported mortality data, although we think it likely that all trialists had those data available. For this reason, all studies were rated as having high risk of bias in the "selective reporting" category.…”

“…[11][12][13] One of these, the trial by Mohanty and others, 11 showed a statistically significant improvement from baseline with dutasteride relative to the change from baseline with finasteride (10.4-point reduction versus 6.3-point reduction, respectively; p < 0.001). The IPSS scores were not significantly different in the other 2 studies: Jeong and others 13 observed mean reductions of 5.8 points in the dutasteride group and 5.88 points in the finasteride group, whereas Li and Wang 12 observed reductions of 6.7 in the dutasteride group and 6 points in the finasteride group. We were unable to identify the cause of heterogeneity in qualityof-life results among these 3 studies because insufficient information was available.…”

“…Although the trial was blinded, to limit biases, it was not adequately powered to detect a difference. Two studies reported on the need for prostate-related surgery 13,14 ; however, one study had no events, 13 and the other did not report a statistically significant difference and was not adequately powered to detect a difference 14 ( Figure 3). The number of episodes of acute urinary retention was reported in 3 studies, 11,13,14 2 of which had no events.…”