[Interpretation of results of clinical trials in benign prostatic hyperplasia]

The random clinical trial (RCT) is the most suitable study to evaluate the treatment effectiveness in the benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Although most of the urologists will not collaborate in a RCT development, they will treat BPH patients, so it is very important to know if a CRT in BPH is well designed and their conclusions are correct. The aim of this article is to give the basic elements of analysis that urologists need in order to evaluate the quality and the level of evidence of a RCT in BPH. This article emphasizes the three main elements of a RCT: to check if the study has been correctly performed (internal validity), to evaluate if the treatment achieves an important clinical improvement (relevance of the results) and the applicability of the results in our patients (external validity). The article shows that to analyse these elements common sense and clinical judgment are needed rather than statistical knowledge.