alpha blockers help with ureteral stone passage
A recent meta-analysis/systematic review confirmed that a -blockers are efficacious in the treatment of patients with ureteral stones (see kidney stone alpha blockers review bmj2016 in dropbox , or doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i6112 ). details: --55 unique RCTs, with 5990 randomized patients, mostly in European and Asian subjects. Mean stone size 5.7 mm, tamsulosin was the a -blocker in 40 studies, mean follow-up of 28 days --primary outcome: proportion of patients who passed their stone --secondary outcomes: time to passage of stone, number of pain episodes, and proportion of patients who had surgery/were admitted to hospital/experienced adverse events results: -- a -blockers facilitated the passage of stone, with risk ratio (RR)=1.49 (1.39-1.61), a 49% higher likelihood of stone passage (moderate quality evidence) --the pooled risk difference was 0.27, meaning that ...