Carpal tunnel syndrome and trigger finger as related to benign prostatic hyperplasia: A retrospective nationwide cohort investigation

Abstract

To describe the incidence of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) after a diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome or trigger finger. We performed a retrospective study on national health registry comparing the incidence of BPH between a cohort of 9720 study patients and a comparison cohort of 38,880 control individuals. The crude hazard ratio (HR) and the adjusted HR were estimated by the univariable and the multivariable Cox proportional hazard model, respectively. The risks of BPH in different age groups and patients with or without comorbidities were also investigated. The cumulative incidence curves were obtained by the Kaplan-Meier method and assessed by the Log-rank test. Compared to the control cohort, patients with carpal tunnel syndrome increased the risk of BPH by 1.36 times (95% confidence intervals [CI] = 1.29, 1.43). Patients only diagnosed with trigger finger raised the risk of BPH by 1.31 times (95% CI = 1.22, 1.40). The HR of BPH for patients with both carpal tunnel syndrome and trigger finger relative to the controls was 1.43 (95% CI = 1.33, 1.54). We concluded that the likelihood of developing BPH was increased in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome or trigger finger.