Efficacy of Tamsulosin in the Medical Management of Juxtavesical Ureteral Stones: A Randomized Control Trial

Abstract

Urolithiasis is the third most common disease of the urinary tract. Among all urinary tract stones, majorities are ureteral stones located in the distal part of the ureters. At present, multimodalities of treatment are available to the urologists. The purpose of the present study was to observe the efficacy of Tamsulosin in conventional treatment of juxtavesical ureteric stone having size up to 8 mm. This was a single centered, parallel randomized control trial carried out in the outpatient department of Urology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka from July 2007 to June 2008. The patients with unilateral, juxtavesical ureteral stone with normal functioning kidney and absence of clinical and laboratory signs of urinary tract infection and stone size up to 8 mm were included in the study. Patients were divided into two groups according to the computer generated simple random sampling. Patients of Group-A  were given conventional hydrotherapy treatment and patients of Group-B were given Tamsulosin 0.4mg/day along with the conventional hydrotherapy. Each patient was followed-up weekly until stone expulsion for 4 weeks. In Group-A and Group-B, the mean age with SD was 38.55±10.05 and 37.7±9.33 years. Expulsion occurred in 32 (53.33%) of 60 patients in Group-A and 51 (85%) of 60 patients in Group-B (p <0.05). The number of pain episodes in this study was statistically significantly lower in Group-B patients compared to Group-A (p <0.05). Urinary tract infection was encountered in 12 (20%) patients of Group-A and 2 (3.33%) patients of Group-B (p <0.05) during four weeks therapy which was treated by appropriate antibiotics. No side effects of Tamsulosin were encountered in any patients of Group-B which could require the cessation of the medication or might need for dose titration. Findings of the study revealed that the Tamsulosin supplemented conventional therapy is more effective than conventional hydrotherapy alone in management of juxtavesical ureteral stones.