BACKGROUND: Hyperglycemia is associated with adverse outcomes in patent with traumatic brain injury. There is convincing evidence of the deleterious effects of early systemic hyperglycemia on neurological outcomes and guides management toward intensive glycemic control. The purpose of this systematic review and meta analysis is to evaluate and summarize the level of evidence on the role of glycemic control in traumatic brain injury.
METHODS: A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed following PRISMA guidelines. This review involved studies conducted in humans covering glycemic control in traumatic brain injury. A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, Embase, EBSCO Host, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Medline, and LILACS from database inception to October 2020. The risk of bias was evaluated with the GRADE quality Scale.
RESULTS: The results of this meta-analysis that involved 1236 patients included in 10 studies suggest that intensive glycemic control did not show significant differences in mortality compared with conservative management (RR 0.99 [95 % CI 0.81-1.21] p = 0.92). Intensive glycemic control reduced the risk of unfavorable clinical outcomes compared to standard management (RR 0.87 [95 % CI 0.78-0.96] p = 0.007) and increased favorable clinical outcomes compared to standard neurocritical care (RR 1.19 [95 % CI 1.02-138] p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: The possible effect of glycemic control could be associated with silent hypoglycemic episodes during intensive care. Further studies evaluating the impact of glycemic control in traumatic brain injury are necessary.