Closure of Patent Foramen Ovale versus Medical Therapy after Cryptogenic Stroke: Meta-Analysis of Five Randomized Controlled Trials with 3440 Patients.

Objective: We aimed to determine whether patent foramen ovale closure reduces the risk of stroke, also assessing some safety outcomes.

Introduction: The clinical benefit of closing a patent foramen ovale after a cryptogenic stroke has been an open question for several decades, so that it is necessary to review the current state of published medical data in this regard.

Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL/CCTR, SciELO, LI-LACS, Google Scholar and reference lists of relevant articles were searched for randomized controlled trials that reported any of the following outcomes: stroke, death, major bleeding or atrial fibrillation.