Impact of baseline symptom severity on future risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia-related outcomes and long-term response to finasteride. The Pless Study Group.

Objectives: To evaluate the long-term effects of finasteride on symptoms, acute urinary retention (AUR), and the need for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)-related surgery in relationship to baseline symptom severity.

Methods: A total of 3040 men with BPH were treated for 4 years with finasteride or placebo. The changes from baseline in symptoms and the incidence of BPH-related surgery and AUR were determined in men with mild (less than 8), low-moderate (8 to 12), high-moderate (13 to 19), and severe (greater than 19) baseline quasi-American Urological Association symptoms for all patients and for the subgroup with a baseline prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level of 1.

Treatment in the prone position of calculi in the midureter overlying the bony sacrum with extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy.

Thirty-six patients with radiopaque calculi in the segment of the ureter overlying the sacrum, were treated in the prone position with an unmodified Dornier HM-3 lithotripter. Thirty-one treatments were successful and five failed for a success rate of 86%. Success is defined as the absence of fragments on KUB.