ObjectivesTo systematically review the efficacy and safety of doxazosin for ureterolithiasis.MethodsPubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library and CNKI databases were electronically searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of comparing doxazosin with conservative treatment or tamsulosin for ureterolithiasis from inception to October, 2018. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies, then, RevMan 5.3 software was used to perform meta-analysis.ResultsA total of 15 RCTs involving 1 062 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that: compared with conservative treatment, doxazosin significantly facilitated ureteral stone expulsion (RR=1.62, 95%CI 1.45 to 1.81, P<0.000 01). No statistical significant difference was found in stone-free rate (RR=0.96, 95%CI 0.83 to 1.11, P=0.57), stone expulsion time (SMD=?0.17, 95%CI ?0.52 to 0.19, P=0.35) or pain episode frequency (SMD=0.21, 95%CI ?0.15 to 0.56, P=0.25) between doxazosin and tamsulosin. Treatment-associated serious side effects were rarely reported.ConclusionCurrent evidence shows that doxazosin is an efficient and safe medical expulsion agent for ureterolithiasis management. Due to limited quality and quantity of the included studies, more high quality studies are required to verify above conclusions.
