Effectiveness of Polidocanol in the Treatment of Venous Malformations: A Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of polidocanol against venous malformations (VMs). METHODS: Studies reporting the treatment of VMs using polidocanol (published until February 15, 2020) were reviewed in the Embase and PubMed databases. After excluding the same literature, part of the studies were excluded by reading the title, abstract, full text. Eleven studies (with 287 participants) that fulfilled the inclusion criteria were included. Systematic meta-analysis was performed using Reviews Manager 5.2, and a fixed-effects model was used to calculate the pooled effective rate of polidocanol against VMs and the 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Lesion reduction of more than 50% was considered effective. A total of 287 patients were treated, and treatment in 271 was considered effective. The efficacy of polidocanol was 0.89 (95% CI = 0.83–0.93). Heterogeneity among the studies was small (I(2) = 0%, P = 0.47). T The funnel plot was roughly symmetric. CONCLUSION: Our study suggested that polidocanol is effective in the treatment of VMs. VMs at different sites can be treated without serious complications. Therefore, we have reason to believe that polidocanol is a safe and an effective drug for VMs.