Introduction: The use of endovascular therapy (EVT) in patients with unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIA) is associated with a significant reduction of headache severity. It is still unclear how the treatment modality and the aneurysm location affect headache in these patients. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to compare the improvement of headache rates based on the endovascular treatment modality and aneurysm location.
Evidence acquisition: We conducted a complete search through four databases. Original studies that reported the improvement in headache rates in patients that had undergone EVT for UIA based on the treatment modality and location were included in the analysis. Fixed effect meta-analysis was performed to compare them using the odds ratio (OR).
Evidence synthesis: A total of 180 reports were screened for title and abstract, of which six reports were included in this study. There were 199 patients that underwent stent-assisted coiling and 184 patients who had coiling alone. A total of 75 patients with posterior aneurysms were included as compared to 347 with anterior aneurysms. There was no significant difference between the two treatment modalities regarding the improvement in headache rates (OR=0.591, 95% CI: 0.349-1.003, P=0.051). Additionally, no difference was found in headache improvement rates between posterior and anterior UIA (OR=0.738, 95% CI: 0.434-1.254, P=0.262).
Conclusions: There was no clear statistical difference between stent-assisted coiling and coiling alone for the improvement of headache in patients with UIA, as well as between posterior and anterior UIA. Future well-conducted large trials that use headache severity scores are warranted to investigate that further.