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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2013 Apr 12;8(4):e59449.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059449. Print 2013.

Electroacupuncture for moderate and severe benign prostatic hyperplasia: a randomized controlled trial

Yang Wang  1 , Baoyan Liu, Jinna Yu, Jiani Wu, Jing Wang, Zhishun Liu
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Electroacupuncture for moderate and severe benign prostatic hyperplasia: a randomized controlled trial

Yang Wang et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) on the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), postvoid residual urine (PVR), and maximum urinary flow rate (Qmax), and explore the difference between EA at acupoints and non-acupoints in patients with moderate to severe benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH).

Subjects and methods: Men with BPH and IPSS ≥8 were enrolled. Participants were randomly allocated to receive EA at acupoint (treatment group, n = 50) and EA at non-acupoint (control group, n = 50). The primary outcome measure includes the change of IPSS at the 6th week and the secondary outcome measures include changes of PVR and Qmax at the 6th week and change of IPSS at the 18th week.

Results: 100/192 patients were included. At the 6th week, treatment group patients had a 4.51 (p<0.001) and 4.12 (p<0.001) points greater decline in IPSS than the control group in the intention to treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) populations. At the 18th week, a 3.2 points (p = 0.001) greater decline was found in IPSS for the treatment. No significant differences were found between the two groups in Qmax at the 6th week (p = 0.819). No significant difference was observed in PVR (P = 0.35).

Conclusion: Acupoint EA at BL 33 had better effects on IPSS, but no difference on PVR and Qmax as compared with non-acupoint EA. The results indicate that EA is effective in improving patient's quality of life and acupoint may have better therapeutic effects than non-acupoints in acupuncture treatments of BPH.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01218243.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. The flowchart of study participation.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Time frame of each period.
Figure 2 shows the time frame of baseline period, treatment period and follow-up period.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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