Efficacy of Tamsulosin alone versus Tamsulosin Phloroglucinol combination therapy for medical expulsion of lower Ureteral calculi

OBJECTIVE: To see whether phloroglucinol-added tamsulosin therapy exhibits better efficacy than tamsulosin alone in medical expulsion of lower ureteral stone (LUS). METHODS: Sixty four consecutive adult patients presented in a urological setting at Sialkot, Pakistan between January 2015 and December 2016 with solitary, unilateral 3-8mm sized lower ureteral stone (reported by noncontrast computed tomography of the kidney-ureter-bladder) were documented. Group either study or control was allotted, randomly. Same 0.4 mg tamsulosin, once daily was given to all the participants. However, additional 40 mg phloroglucinol, thrice daily was advised for study group (n = 32). The therapy terminated on confirmation of stone expulsion otherwise continued for 6 weeks. Patients were asked to use 50 mg diclophenac Na on colic episode. RESULTS: Demographic characteristics revealed 81.2% (n = 52) male patients while age statistics as M = 42.3, SD = 5.93 (range 32-60) years. The study group showed higher stone expulsion rate (100%) and time to expulsion (M = 10.34 days) than control. The values were statistically significant (p = .02 and p = .0001; χ(2) test in SPSS). Similarly, combination therapy had advantage on mono therapy for reporting statistically lesser numbers of colic episode (p = .03) and consumption of analgesic (p = .02). A marked difference in rate of adverse effects i.e. 68.8 vs. 90.6% was observed in study and control groups. CONCLUSION: Phloroglucinol-added therapy is a better choice for expulsion of LUS than tamsulosin alone with reference to stone expulsion rate and medication time.