Efficacy and safety of endoscopic sclerotherapy vs traditional surgery in the treatment of internal hemorrhoids: A meta-analysis

Table 1 Characteristics of the trials included in this meta-analysis, mean ± SD

Ref.	Country	Grade	Group	ES/TS (n)	Sex (female/male)	Age (ES + TS) (year)
Liu et al[21], 2015	China	II, III	ES	86	58/761	48.90 ± 14.60
			TS	48		47.10 ± 15.20
Li[15], 2019	China	I-III	ES	30	25/351	41.21 ± 4.31
			TS	30		40.14 ± 3.13
Xia et al[23], 2019	China		ES	53	47/591	40.82 ± 3.81
			TS	53		40.82 ± 2.91
Ke[16], 2020	China	II, III	ES	58	61/551	42.30 ± 2.20
			TS	58		42.10 ± 2.10
Li et al[17], 2020	China	I-III	ES	30	13/471	34.85 ± 3.24
			TS	30		35.25 ± 3.34
Ding et al[18], 2021	China	I-IV	ES	30	32/281	43.10 ± 12.10
			TS	30		42.20 ± 11.70
Lin et al[19], 20211	China	I-III	ES	40	28/521	37.91 ± 4.87
			TS	40		38.11 ± 4.99
Wang et al[20], 2021	China	I-III	ES	30	29/311	38.10 ± 1.89
			TS	30		39.90 ± 1.75
Lv and Pan[22], 2021	China	I-III	ES	40	31/491	42.80 ± 5.10
			TS	40		44.50 ± 4.80
Chen et al[24], 2021	China	II, III	ES	40	34/461	43.37 ± 15.13
			TS	40		43.51 ± 15.27
Li et al[25], 2025	China	I-III	ES	30	21/391	46.30 ± 2.50
			TS	30		45.90 ± 2.30
Zhou et al[26], 2021	China	I-III	ES	69	72/631	54.10 ± 8.20
			TS	66		51.20 ± 7.60
Chen et al[29], 2023	China	II, III	ES	60	49/711	46.01 ± 9.98
			TS	60		45.36 ± 10.15
Yu et al[30], 2023	China	I-III	ES	60	49/711	46.19 ± 12.91
			TS	60		41.95 ± 15.39
Wang et al[31], 2023	China	II, III	ES	122	121/1231	52.70 ± 4.30
			TS	122		54.60 ± 2.40
Wu and Li[32], 2024	China		ES	52	39/651	47.08 ± 4.25
			TS	52		46.59 ± 4.28
Zheng et al[33], 2024	China	I-III	ES	35	27/431	47.92 ± 5.60
			TS	35		47.65 ± 5.40

¹Sex data are presented as totals for both the endoscopic sclerotherapy and traditional surgery groups combined, as the original studies did not provide separate group data.

ES: Endoscopic sclerotherapy; TS: Traditional surgery.