4.1 Main Findings
This systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrated that there were
lower immediate postoperative VAS scores, shorter hospitalization times
and a lower risk of adverse events in HIFU ablation treatment for AWE
than in surgical treatment for AWE.
4.2 Strengths and Limitations
To our knowledge, this is the first meta-analysis that compares the
clinical outcomes of HIFU with surgical interventions for treating AWE.
However, there are also some limitations to this study: (1) Although we
included literature from the widest search possible, the number of
included articles was limited, possibly due to the rare use of HIFU
ablation in AWE; (2) All studies included were cohort studies with a
high risk of bias in at least 2 domains; (3) All studies were
retrospective without a clear method to identify cases.