Guideline for the primary care management of male lower urinary tract symptoms

Abstract

As my Comment in the first section of the journal suggested, the MTOPS results have offered the possibility to general practitioners of reducing the risk of side‐effects of BPH, particularly urinary retention, by giving patients dual therapy with 5α‐reductase inhibitor and alpha‐adrenergic blocker. Authors from the UK present guidelines for the primary case management of male LUTS, which significantly fills this gap in the literature. Any help in the management of chronic nonbacterial prostatitis is welcome to clinicians; many treatments have been proposed after non‐comparative trials, and so their value must be viewed cautiously. The authors from Canada and USA present the results of a randomized placebo‐controlled study into the use of finasteride in such patients. The other papers in this section all deal with LUTS, e.g. frequency and nocturia, in a variety of situations. There is still great interest in the epidemiology of these symptoms, and in the various methods of grading their severity.