Phytotherapy for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: The Clinical Efficay and Safety of Use of Prostacare in Patients with Mild to Moderate Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms

Background: Benign prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) is the commonest benign tumour affecting men worldwide often causing structural or functional obstruction of the bladder neck with manifestation of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). This may have significant effect on the quality of life of the individual. Aim and objective: The study was conducted to find the clinical efficacy and safety of use of prostacare in patients with mild and moderate LUTS secondary to BPH. Patients and methods: It was a prospective interventional study on 72 patients, 40 years and above who presented with LUTS (International Prostate Symptoms Score; IPSS ? 19) to urology outpatient clinic of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano-Nigeria and who were diagnosed to have BPH. On presentation patients were evaluated for symptoms and signs of bladder outlet obstruction secondary to BPH. All patients recruited into the study had uroflowmetry (for peak urinary flow rate), laboratory investigations and abdominal ultrasound at presentation, and then they were given prostacare capsules for three months, one capsule (320 mg) daily. They were seen after six weeks of commencement of the drug and re-assessed. The generated data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20 software. Results: Seventy two (72) patients were recruited over the period of the study; however, 6 patients were lost to follow up during subsequent review in the clinic. The ages of the patients ranged from 40 to 77 years with a mean age of 58±18.4 SD. All the patients enrolled into the study had moderate LUTS (IPSS 9-19) and after 6 weeks on prostacare 86.4% of them had improvement in the LUTS. Similarly both quality of life (QOL) due to LUTS and peak urinary flow rate (Qmax) of majority of the patients recorded significant improvements after 6 weeks on the prostacare. From the results up to 54 patients felt happy or delighted about their LUTS after 6 weeks on prostacare when compared to 54 patients and 6 patients who felt unhappy and terrible respectively before given the drug. Also up to 89.4% of the patients had a Qmax of > 10 mls/s a significant improvement over the 16.7% with similar Qmax before prostacare. However no significant change in prostate size was recorded after 6 weeks on prostacare. Prostacare also was clinically safe in our patients as only 0.5% of our patients reported abdominal cramps. Conclusion: Prostacare a monotherapy containing saw palmetto berries significantly relieves LUTS and improves urinary flow and thereby improving quality of life of patients with mild and moderate LUTS secondary to BPH. However, prostacare does not significantly affect the size of the prostate in short term use. The drug is generally safe to use as it does not have significant side effect on our patients.