Features of the Course of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms in Men with Benign Prostate Hyperplasia and COVID-19

Abstract

Nowadays men’s health remains in priority. It is given no less attention than to the cardiovascular disorders and cancer. Low urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) accompany most urological diseases and thus are among the most significant syndromes in urology. The medico-social significance of the syndrome puts the development of protocols for its effective detection and drug treatment with long-term efficacy in a number of priority tasks, stimulating the pharmaceutical industry to search for promising candidates.. Restrictions of COVID-19 Pandemic prevent routine procedures by urologists, prompting them to provide online counseling. Under these circumstances, recommendations were made on the strategy and tactics of treatment of urological diseases during a pandemic, as well as strategic directions in the urology of the future were identified. There is a worldwide consensus among experts on minimizing invasive treatments for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) to maximize the protection of medical personnel from the potential risk of COVID-19 infection, while direct contact with patients is not always possible to avoid. It is known from scientific sources that, in contrast to 2019, in 2020 there was a tendency of increase the share of hospitalizations for emergency urological conditions as well as the share of critical conditions, requiring the strengthening of anti-epidemic measures. Over the past year the ability of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to increase the severity of LUTS in men with urological pathology was reported. Furthermore the development of severe urogenital symptoms (COVID-19-associated cystitis) with a high content of proinflammatory cytokines not only in blood plasma but also in urine was registered. This allows to include LUTS «de novo» in the complex of symptoms of COVID-19. Physicians should be aware of urogenital manifestations COVID-19 and include verification of bladder dysfunction to diagnostic program. Strict adherence to WHO and EAU anti-epidemic recommendations and algorithms is extremely important, so we provide online counseling to patients with symptomatic BPH, ensuring the continuity of the specialized treatment process and minimizing direct contact. The proposed method of treatment of moderate to severe BPH associated LUTS involves tamsulosin monotherapy or in combination with finasteride. The results of the use of tamsulosin hydrochloride in cases of LUTS in BPH indicate that the percentage of acute urinary retention in patients receiving monotherapy is almost similar to that when using combination therapy (tamsulosin + finasteride) and is about 7.0% per year. The obtained data suggest that the observation of patients at a distance can be justified only temporarily, but requires strict adherence to an individually designed treatment plan, which should be based on the guidelines of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and WHO standards. The problem of BPH is a very important issue in modern medicine and requires clear treatment algorithms, with different contexts of modern realities, such as the latest data on certain links in the pathogenesis of urinary tract obstruction caused by BPH on the background of COVID-19.