The treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia: a prospective, randomized clinical trial to be conducted by the American Urological Association

Through a large nationwide, multicenter, prospective, randomized and preferential clinical trial, the American Urological Association plans to evaluate the efficacy of watchful waiting, alpha-blockade, balloon dilation, and transurethral prostatectomy (TURP) in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia. The study, to be conducted at 20 major urological centers in the United States, will primarily address the issue of long-term mortality after TURP and for the first time in any large clinical trial, will evaluate the effect of these management strategies on the patient's quality of life. Completion of the study should provide valuable information, now lacking in the urological literature, concerning the treatment of the most common urological disease of the aging male.