TY - JOUR T1 - Tamsulosin and nifedipine did not improve stone passage over placebo nor were they cost-effective in ureteric stone disease JF - Evidence Based Medicine JO - Evid Based Med SP - 22 LP - 22 DO - 10.1136/ebmed-2015-110294 VL - 21 IS - 1 AU - Sayyid M Ammar Raza AU - Philip A Kalra Y1 - 2016/02/01 UR - http://ebm.bmj.com/content/21/1/22.abstract N2 - Commentary on: Pickard R, Starr K, MacLennan G, et al. Use of drug therapy in the management of symptomatic ureteric stones in hospitalised adults: a multicentre, placebo-controlled, randomised controlled trial and cost-effectiveness analysis of a calcium channel blocker (nifedipine) and an alpha-blocker (tamsulosin) (the SUSPEND trial). Health Technol Assess 2015;19:1–172.OpenUrlSymptomatic ureteric stones are a common urological problem with an annual incidence of around 30/100 000 population in high-resource countries.1 Usually stones sized <6 mm pass spontaneously and are therefore managed conservatively. Recent European Association of Urology guidelines (August 2015) recommend the use of medical expulsion therapy (MET), in the form of α-blockers, to facilitate small stone passage.2 This guidance is primarily based on the findings of a meta-analysis in 2009 which assessed 47 clinical trials.3 Two classes of MET were assessed, calcium … ER -