Atenolol vs. propranolol for the treatment of infantile haemangiomas: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Infantile haemangioma (IH) is a benign vascular tumour type that occurs in 3-10% of infants. In the present meta-analysis, previous studies comparing clinical outcomes, including the recovery rate and haemangioma activity score (HAS), adverse effects and relapse rates, were compared between patients treated with atenolol and those treated with propranolol for IH. A systematic search in various databases, including Medline, Cochrane Controlled Register of Trials, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar from inception until July 2019 was performed. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to assess the quality of published trials. A meta-analysis with a random-effects model and reported pooled mean differences (MD) or odds ratios (OR) with 95% CIs was performed. In total, 8 studies including 608 participants were analyzed. Only 2 studies were randomized controlled trials, while the majority of studies had low or unclear bias risks. Except for the response to medication (pooled OR=1.49; 95% CI, 0.85-2.18), all other outcomes (HAS, adverse reactions and relapse rate) were better for the atenolol group than the propranolol group. Atenolol resulted in better HAS (pooled MD=0.16; 95% CI, -0.42 to 0.73). Propranolol had more adverse reactions (pooled OR=2.17; 95% CI, 0.93-5.06) and a higher relapse rate (pooled OR, 1.67; 95% CI, 0.44-6.41) when compared to atenolol. However, these findings were not statistically significant. The results of this analysis suggest that atenolol may be non-inferior to propranolol and may offer advantages, including lower adverse reactions and relapse rates.