Association between the subsequent benign prostate hyperplasia-related surgery risk and patients treated with Chinese herbal medicine: a population-based Taiwanese cohort study

Tsai MY, Liu CT, Shen YS, Luo HL, Chen TL, Shih YH, Hung YT, Hsu TJ, Tsai FJ, Chen YH · BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies · 2026 May 07

DOI 10.1186/s12906-026-05400-8

Objective

To investigate the association between Chinese herbal medicine use and the long-term risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia-related surgery in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Conclusions

Our study demonstrated that Chinese herbal medicine co-treatment may reduce the long-term risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia-related surgery, particularly among patients using Chinese herbal medicine for more than a year.

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Insights

Chinese herbal medicines (CHM), particularly Dan Shen and Ji-Sheng-Shen-Qi-Wan, can significantly reduce the risk of surgery related to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

The methodology involved analyzing 21-years of data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database, considering a random sample of two million beneficiaries who were newly diagnosed with BPH from 2001 to 2016. The participants were observed until 2021, during which 11,172 patients were assigned to a CHM group (receiving CHM and Western medicine), and another 11,172 to a non-CHM group (receiving Western medicine only). Factors in the matching included baseline comorbidities, age, and the index year. The primary outcome was the occurrence of BPH-related surgery during the follow-up period. The results demonstrated that during the study period, fewer patients in the CHM group underwent BPH-related surgery than those in the non-CHM group. Moreover, a significantly lower risk was observed in those treated with CHM for more than a year, highlighting that long-term use of CHM could lead to lower chances of needing BPH-related surgery. The most commonly prescribed treatments were the herb Dan Shen and the CHM formula Ji-Sheng-Shen-Qi-Wan.