Evaluating the acceptability of an online patient decision aid for the surgical management of lower urinary tract symptoms secondary to benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Introduction: The growing number of surgical options available to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), may overwhelm patients and urologists when deciding on an optimal treatment. Therefore, we developed an online patient decision aid (PtDA) that includes all guideline-approved surgical modalities. The objective of this study was to assess the acceptability of the PtDA among former BPH surgery patients and urologists that treat BPH surgically.

Methods: The International Patient Decision Aids Standards were used to develop a PtDA that includes monopolar transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), bipolar TURP, GreenLight photovaporization, endoscopic enucleation of the prostate, Rezum, Urolift, Aquablation, open retropubic prostatectomy, and robotic simple prostatectomy as management options. Eleven urologists that regularly treat BPH and 19 patients who received BPH surgery were recruited. Alpha-testing was performed using a validated acceptability scoring system.

Results: For all sections of the PtDA, most urologists agreed that the language used was easy to follow (91.9%), that the amount of information provided was adequate (63.6%), that the length of the PtDA was appropriate (63.6%), and that the outcomes reported were correct (81.8%). All 19 patient participants agreed that the language used was easy to follow, and most found that the amount of information provided was adequate (84.2%), that the length of the PtDA was appropriate (84.2%), and that the outcomes reported were well-explained (89.5%).

Conclusions: Our PtDA was found to be acceptable among urologists and patients. These results demonstrate that most of the participants either recommend the use of this tool or plan to incorporate it in their clinical practice.