Rhubarb root and rhizome-based Chinese herbal prescriptions for acute ischemic stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
CONCLUSIONS:
Despite the apparently positive findings, it is premature to recommend the routine use of RRR-based prescriptions for acute ischemic stroke because methodological flaws undermine the strength of our findings. However, this work identifies an area, which is worthy of improvement and development for further research. Larger sample-sizes and rigorously designed RCTs are required in the future.
Relationship between Chinese medicine pattern types, clinical severity, and prognosis in patients with acute cerebral infarct.
Abstract
We investigated the relationship between Chinese medicine pattern (CMP) types, their severity, and prognosis in patients (n = 187) with acute cerebral infarct (ACI). Six CMPs (wind, phlegm, fire-heat, blood stasis, qi deficiency, and yin deficiency and yang hyperactivity) were evaluated according to inspection, listening and smelling, inquiry, and palpitation. The severity and prognosis of each pattern type was determined according to the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), Modified Rankin Scale (MRS), National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), Barthel Index (BI), and Functional Independence Measure (FIM), recorded at stroke onset and 12 weeks after stroke onset. The phlegm pattern (PP) patients displayed lower GCS, BI, and FIM scales scores, and higher MRS and NIHSS scales scores, than the nonphlegm pattern (N-PP) patients at, and 12 weeks after stroke onset, suggesting the clinical severity is greater and the prognosis is worse in PP patients with ACI than in non-PP patients with ACI.
Acupuncture for acute management and rehabilitation of traumatic brain injury.
AUTHORS’ CONCLUSIONS:
The low methodological quality of the included studies does not allow us to make conclusive judgments on the efficacy and safety of acupuncture in either the acute treatment and/or rehabilitation of TBI. Its beneficial role for these indications remains uncertain. Further research with high quality trials is required.
Effects of early acupuncture combined with exercise therapy on the consciousness-regaining treatment of coma patients in neurosurgery
CONCLUSION:
Early acupuncture combined with exercise therapy can improve the conscious rate of coma patients in neurosurgery, thereby decrease their mortality and disability rate.
