Phytotherapy for benign prostatic hyperplasia

CRD COMMENTARY: Inclusion criteria for the study design, participants and interventions were clearly stated, whereas those for the outcomes were not explicitly stated. The search strategy appeared to include some attempt to locate unpublished material. However, it was not stated whether any language restrictions were applied, thus some relevant studies might have been missed. Validity was not formally assessed, so it was not always clear whether the results reported came from good- or poor-quality RCTs. Since details of the review process (how the studies were selected, validity assessed, and so on) were not reported, it was not clear whether bias could have occurred during the review process. The decision not to pool studies of Secale cereale seems appropriate given the diversity of the interventions and comparators. The authors' conclusions seem appropriate.