Acupuncture for benign prostatic hyperplasia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Zhang W, Ma L, Bauer BA, Liu Z, Lu Y · PLOS One · 2017 April 04

Objective

This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to assess the therapeutic and adverse effects of acupuncture for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Conclusions

Statistically significant changes were observed in favor of acupuncture in moderate to severe BPH with respect to short-term follow-up endpoints. The clinical significance of these changes needs to be tested by further studies with rigorous designs and longer follow-up times.

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Insights

Acupuncture can significantly improve urological symptoms in the short term for men with benign prostatic hyperplasia.

The comprehensive study used a systematic review and a meta-analysis to measure both the therapeutic and adverse effects of acupuncture on benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) through randomized controlled trials. Independent reviewers analyzed and extracted data from various renowned databases including MEDLINE, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library, and several Chinese knowledge resources. The trials focused on BPH symptomatic men and reviewed the extent to which acupuncture treatment altered urological symptoms. The results from eight separate randomized controlled trials involving 661 men were combined, showing statistical short-term (4-6 weeks) improvement in urological symptoms for BPH patients through the use of acupuncture. However, the medium-term follow-up (12-18 weeks) analysis did not indicate any significant effect. The beneficial effects were considerably noticeable in cases of moderate to severe BPH on the short-term follow-up endpoints. Nonetheless, the clinical significance of these changes necessitates rigorous and long-term follow-ups for validation.