Efficacy and safety of edaravone combined with Ginkgo Leaf Extract and Dipyridamole in the treatment of acute cerebral infarction: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of edaravone combined with Ginkgo Leaf Extract and Dipyridamole (GLED) versus edaravone alone in the treatment of acute cerebral infarction (ACI) by the method of meta-analysis.

METHODS

PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WANFANG DATA, and Chinese Scientific Journal Database were searched to identify publications on edaravone combined with GLED for ACI from inception to June 20, 2024. Stata15.0 statistical software was applied for data analysis. The test group was treated with edaravone combined with GLED, while the control group received edaravone alone.

RESULTS

A total of 12 records were involved in this meta-analysis. The combined results exhibited that the effective rate of edaravone combined with GLED was significantly higher than that of edaravone in the treatment of ACI (relative risk = 1.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.15-1.27, P < .001). The National Institute of Health stroke scale scores of edaravone combined with GLED were significantly lower than those of edaravone alone in the treatment of ACI (standardized mean difference = -1.93, 95% CI = -3.36 to -0.50, P = .008). The incidence of adverse reactions in the edaravone combined with GLED group was significantly lower than that in the edaravone alone group (relative risk = 0.48, 95% CI = 0.33-0.70, P < .001) in the treatment of ACI.

CONCLUSION

The combination of edaravone with GLED for treating ACI has better efficacy and higher safety than edaravone alone. Given the limited number of studies identified and possibility of publication bias, the above findings should be verified by more high-quality trials in the future.