Efficacy of OK-432 sclerotherapy for different types of lymphangiomas: a review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to perform a meta-analysis to figure out the efficacy of OK-432 sclerotherapy between Macrocystic (MAC) lymphangiomas and Microcystic (MIC) lymphangiomas. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to clarify the relationship between OK-432 and lymphangiomas. PubMed and ISI Web of Science were searched from inception to May 2022. Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) manual was used to evaluate the risk of bias. We calculated pooled Relative Risks (RR) and 95% Confidence Interval (95% CI) using random effects model to evaluate the relations between OK-432 and lymphangiomas. RESULTS: A total of 11 studies (including 352 cases) about OK-432 sclerotherapy for lymphangioma were included in the current meta-analyses. The results suggested that the efficacy of OK-432 was significantly in MAC lesions than in MIC (RR = 1.51, 95% CI 1.298–1.764), with significant moderate degrees of heterogeneity among 11 studies (I(2) = 51.2%, p = 0.025). Subgroup analyses suggested that there was significant association in both retrospective studies (RR = 1.26, 95% CI 1.03–1.53) and classification (by 1 cm) (RR = 1.37, 95% CI 1.04–1.80) were associated with the efficacy of OK-432. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, our study represents the first meta-analysis examining the efficacy of OK-432 in the treatment of different types of LMs. However, the regional differences and the age differences of the subjects are the main limitations of this study and should be avoided in further research. Our results suggested that OK-432 sclerotherapy for macrocystic lymphangiomas was more effective.