Figure 1.

Pooled summary of 4 randomized controlled trials included in this review, comparing the effect of therapy of BPH patients with a combination of alpha1-adrenoceptor antagonists (AB) and 5-phosphodiesterase inhibitors (PDE-5I) vs. AB plus placebo. Forest plots indicate the mean difference of pre-post treatment improvements of (i) IPSS total scores, (ii) peak urinary flow (Qmax) and (iii) post-void residual volume (PVR). Data to the right of the vertical no-effect line of forest plots represent a favorable effect of combination therapy versus single-agent plus placebo. Diamonds represent overall effect sizes extending to the limits of the 95% confidence intervals of mean differences. The significance of the pooled effect sizes (Z statistics) and heterogeneity data (I², Chi-square, p value) are shown. Inverse variance statistics, random effects model. RevMan 5.3. When not disclosed in study reports, standard deviations were calculated using the imputeSD package on the R platform. Bechara 2008 is [9], Gacci 2012 is [10], Regadas 2013 is [11], Tuncel 2010 is [12].