The review included 16 studies (9,222 patients), although not all studies provided information for each outcome.
Thirty-day mortality (16 trials, 8,487 patients): the use of ablative procedures did not affect short-term death rates (OR 0.94, 95% CI: 0.46, 1.92).
Thirty-day MI (15 trials, 8,255 patients): the use of ablative procedures was associated with an increased risk of MI (OR 1.83, 95% CI: 1.43, 2.34). This association was also present when each of the ablative procedures was studied individually, but only reached the 5% significance level for directional coronary atherectomy and percutaneous transluminal rotational atherectomy.
Thirty-day MACE (16 trials, 8,990 patients): the use of ablative procedures was associated with an increased risk of MACE (OR 1.54, 95% CI: 1.25, 1.89).
Angiographic restenosis in 90 to 360 days (16 trials, 6,958 patients): the use of ablative procedures slightly increased angiographic restenosis rates, but this association was not significant at the 5% level (OR 1.06, 95%CI: 0.97, 1.17).
Total revascularisation rates up to 360 days (15 studies, 8,176 patients): these did not differ between the two intervention types (OR 1.04, 95% CI: 0.94, 1.14).
MACE at 360 days (16 trials, 8,311 patients): there was an increased risk of MACE with ablative procedures (OR 1.09, 95% CI: 0.99, 1.20), although this was only marginally statistically significant at the 5% level.
No significant heterogeneity between studies was found (0.75> P>0.50).
Subgroup analyses showed that there were some differences between the different ablative procedures for some outcomes.