Hydrogel coils versus bare platinum coils for the endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have shown conflicting results regarding the effect of hydrogel coils for treating intracranial aneurysm compared to bare platinum coils. We implemented a meta-analysis to assess the value of hydrogel coils in intracranial aneurysm treatment. METHODS: The MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) which had evaluated hydrogel coils versus bare platinum coils for intracranial aneurysms. RESULTS: We pooled 1526 patients from 4 RCTs with the mean follow-up time of more than 16 months. Hydrogel coils had reductions on mid-term recurrence (RR 0.78, 95% CI 0.65 to 0.94, P = 0.008) and residual aneurysm (RR 0.71, 95% CI 0.57 to 0.88, P = 0.002), but didn’t show any significant differences in other favorable outcomes such as functional recovery, mortality and so on. In the subgroup analysis, we found that second-generation hydrogel coils might exhibit potential impacts on increasing mid-term complete occlusion (RR 1.26, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.48, P = 0.005) and decreasing residual aneurysm neck. (RR 0.54, 95% CI 0.34 to 0.86, P = 0.010). CONCLUSIONS: Hydrogel coils showed no significant efficacy on functional recovery but exhibited a lower rate of recurrences and residual aneurysms in patients with intracranial aneurysms. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12883-018-1171-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.