Recent progress in liquid embolic agents

Vascular embolization is a non-surgical procedure used to treat diseases or morbid conditions related to blood vessels, such as bleeding, arteriovenous malformation, aneurysm, and hypervascular tumors, through the intentional occlusion of blood vessels. Among various types of embolic agents that have been applied, liquid embolic agents are gaining an increasing amount of attention owing to their advantages in distal infiltration into regions where solid embolic agents cannot reach, enabling more extensive embolization. Meanwhile, recent advances in biomaterials and technologies have also contributed to the development of novel liquid embolic agents that can resolve the challenges faced while using the existing embolic materials. In this review, we briefly summarize the clinically used embolic agents and their applications, and then present selected research results that overcome the limitations of the embolic agents in use. Through this review, we suggest the required properties of liquid embolic agents that ensure efficacy, which can replace the existing agents, providing directions for the future development in this field.