ObjectivesThe present network meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the potential efficacy and safety of various surgical approaches in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia with enlarged prostate.MethodsPubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, Clinicaltrials.gov and CNKI databases were electronically searched to identify eligible studies. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and evaluated risk of bias and the ADDIS 1.16.8 software was used to conduct meta-analysis.ResultsA total of 23 studies involving 2 849 patients with 5 approaches including open prostatectomy (OP), holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP), plasmakinetic/bipolar plasmakinetic enucleation of the prostate (PK/BPEP), transurethral vaporization of the prostate (TUVP), and laparoscopic prostatectomy (LSP) were included. HoLEP, PK/BPEP and OP were superior to the other methods in improving the objective indicators and subjective feelings of patients during both short and medium-term follow-up. However, compared with OP, HoLEP and PK/BPEP were observed to result in a significantly lower hemoglobin level (MD=1.65, 95%CI 0.35 to 4.41; MD=2.62, 95%CI 0.64 to 2.90), longer postoperative irrigation time (MD=4.67, 95%CI 1.29 to 10.66; MD=2.67, 95%CI 1.32 to 6.63), as well as indwelling catheter after operation (MD=1.64, 95%CI 0.48 to 4.15; MD=2.52, 95%CI 0.60 to 3.78). In terms of short-term complications, PK/BPEP (RR=0.45, 95%CI 0.13 to 1.29) was found to be significantly lower than that of OP.ConclusionsHoLEP and PK/BPEP can be probably used as a superior treatment option for large volume benign prostatic hyperplasia because of its better curative effect, higher safety and quick postoperative recovery.