Fax +41 61 306 12 34 E-Mail karger@karger.ch www.karger.com Original Paper Urol Int DOI: 10.1159/000322645 Long-Term Efficacy of Serenoa repens Treatment in Patients with Mild and Moderate Symptomatic Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Ioanel Sinescu   a Petrisor Geavlete   b Razvan Multescu   b Constantin Gangu   a Florin Miclea   d Ioan Coman   f Ioan Ioiart   e Valentin Ambert   c Traian Constantin   c Bogdan Petrut   g Bogdan Feciche   f   a  Department of Urological Surgery, Dialysis and Kidney Transplantation, Fundeni Clinical Institute, b  Department of Urology, ‘Saint John’ Clinical Emergency Hospital, and c  ‘Prof. Dr.Th. Burghele’ Urology Clinical Hospital, Bucharest; d  Department of Urology, Clinical Emergency Hospital, Timisoara; e  ‘Vasile Goldis’ University of Medicine, Department of Urology, Arad; f  University City Hospital and g  Oncological Institute ‘Ion Chiricuta’, Cluj, Romania pens proved to be efficient in reducing urinary obstruction, improving symptomatology and QoL of BPH patients. It also had a positive effect on sexual function, demonstrated by the statistically significant increase in the IIEF. Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel Introduction It is estimated that by the age of 60 years, nearly 60% of males suffer some degree of clinical benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), although its real prevalence is diffi- cult to assess [1]. Nowadays, an increasing proportion of patients with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) as- sociated with BPH benefit from medical treatments. Phy- totherapeutic agents,  1 -blockers and 5  -reductase in- hibitors may offer a viable alternative to surgery in a se- lected subpopulation of cases. Interest in phytotherapeutic agents is growing in both Europe and North America, especially as a consequence of patients’ dissatisfaction due to the adverse effects of other medical alternatives [2, 3]. The most frequently pre- scribed and studied such agent is Serenoa repens extract, Key Words Benign prostatic hyperplasia  Lower urinary tract symptoms  Phytotherapy  Serenoa repens Abstract Introduction: The study aimed to evaluate the long-term ef- ficacy of treatment with extract of Serenoa repens (Prostamol Uno) in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) induced by benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Patients and Methods: We studied 120 patients with mild or moderate LUTS induced by BPH, maximal urinary flow (Q max ) ! 15 ml with a voided volume 6 150 ml, prostate-specific antigen ! 4 ng/ml, and residual urinary volume ! 150 ml, treated daily for 24 months with one capsule of 320 mg ethanolic extract of Serenoa repens . Results: Statistically significant improve- ments in the International Prostate Symptom Score (5.5 points), quality of life (QoL; 1.8 points), Q max (5.6 ml/s), Inter- national Index of Erectile Function (IIEF; 6.4 points) and re- duction in residual urinary volume were observed during the study period. The mean prostate volume at 24 months was 36 ml, compared to 39.8 ml at baseline. Conclusions: Long- term treatment with 320 mg ethanolic extract of Serenoa re- Received: March 30, 2010 Accepted after revision: October 17, 2010 Published online: February 8, 2011 Internationalis Urologia Petrisor Geavlete Department of Urology, ‘Saint John’ Clinical Emergency Hospital Vitan Barzesti 13 RO–042122 Bucharest (Romania) Tel./Fax +40 21 334 5000, E-Mail geavlete  @  gmail.com © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel 0042–1138/11/0000–0000$38.00/0 Accessible online at: www.karger.com/uin