Beta blockers in traumatic brain injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis
This article is a systematic review and meta-analysis that examines the role of beta blockers in TBI. The authors searched three databases for studies that compared beta blockers with placebo or no intervention in adult patients with TBI and reported mortality and functional outcome. They included 17 studies with 13โ244 patients and performed pooled analysis and subgroup analysis. They found that beta blockers were associated with lower mortality at acute care discharge and better functional outcome at long-term follow-up, but also with higher rates of cardiopulmonary and infectious complications. They concluded that the evidence for beta blocker use in TBI was very low quality and recommended high-quality randomized trials to further explore this topic.
Hart S, Lannon M, Chen A, Martyniuk A, Sharma S, Engels PT. Beta blockers in traumatic brain injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Trauma Surg Acute Care Open. 2023 Mar 2;8(1):e001051. doi: 10.1136/tsaco-2022-001051. PMID: 36895782; PMCID: PMC9990673.