Marijuana, Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms, and Pain in the Urologic Patient.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To describe marijuana's clinical role for urologic symptoms. METHODS: Studies related to marijuana, voiding dysfunction, lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), and pain through January 2019 from PubMed were evaluated for relevance and quality. RESULTS: Forty-eight studies were reviewed. Cannabinoids have mixed efficacy for neurogenic LUTS and little evidence for non-neurogenic LUTS, chronic non-cancer-related and perioperative pain. For cancer-related pain, high-level studies demonstrate cannabinoids are well-tolerated with unclear benefit. CONCLUSION: Cannabinoids appear well-tolerated in the short-term, but their efficacy and long-term impact is unproven and unknown in urologic discomfort. Cannabinoids for urologic symptoms should be further explored with well-designed randomized controlled trials.