Are Hemostatic Agents Effective in the Treatment of Acute Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage?

Methods DATA SOURCES: The investigators searched the Cochrane Stroke Group Trials and Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE (from 1966), EMBASE (from 1980), bibliographies of relevant articles, and clinical trial registries. Authors and pharmaceutical companies were contacted for clarification and to identify any additional studies. STUDY SELECTION: Randomized controlled trials with clinical outcome measures evaluating all doses and administration routes of single or multiple hemostatic agents, including antifibrinolytics, blood coagulation factors, and platelet activators. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: All trials were assessed for randomization and concealment of treatment allocation and blinded assessment of outcome. Heterogeneity was measured with the Inconsistency Index (I²) statistic. Results including 95% confidence intervals are presented as relative risk for dichotomous outcomes and as mean difference for continuous data; estimates were based on a fixed-effect or random-effects model.