Post-void residual urine volume is not a good predictor of the need for invasive therapy among patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Purpose: We assessed the value of baseline PVR as predictor of the need for invasive therapy during long-term followup of patients with clinical BPH treated initially with alpha1-blockers or WW.

Materials And Methods: The records of a cohort of 942 patients with BPH treated with alpha(1)-blockers or WW were reviewed. Baseline I-PSS scores, PSA, prostate volume, uroflowmetry, pressure flow parameters and followup data were collected prospectively. Correlations between PVR and other baseline parameters were calculated. The 5-year cumulative risks of invasive therapy were calculated with the Kaplan-Meier method. After stratification of PVR by various cutoff levels (50, 100 and 300 ml), rate ratios between large and small PVRs were calculated using proportional hazards analyses.

Results: PVR has weak (-0.2
Conclusions: In general, baseline PVR has little prognostic value for the risk of BPH related invasive therapy in patients on alpha1-blocker and WW. Only patients with large PVR have a 2-fold increased risk of invasive therapy compared to patients with smaller PVR.