Death: OR 0.91 [95% 0.70–1.17] Death and severe disability OR 0.85 [95% 0.68 to 1.07] In the subgroup of traumatic subarachnoid haemorrhage patients, pooled odds ratio was 0.59 [95% CI 0.37–0.94]; three RCTs reporting death and severe disability as an outcome in this subgroup: OR 0.67 [95% CI 0.46–0.98]
Overall, calcium antagonists reduced the risk of poor outcome: the relative risk (RR) was 0.81 [95% CI 0.72 to 0.92]; the corresponding number of patients needed to treat was 19 [95% CI 1 to 51]; for oral nimodipine alone the RR was 0.67 [95% CI 0.55 to 0.81]; for other calcium antagonists or intravenous administration of nimodipine the results were not statistically significant; calcium antagonists reduced the occurrence of secondary ischaemia and showed a favourable trend for case fatality; for magnesium, in addition to standard treatment with nimodipine, the RR was 0.75 [95% CI 0.57 to 1.00] for a poor outcome and 0.66 [95% CI 0.45 to 0.96] for clinical signs of secondary ischaemia
Incidence of DIND: relative risk: 0.8 [95% CI 0.67–0.95], angiographic vasospasm RR 0.62, [95% CI 0.52 to 0.72], unfavourable outcome: RR: 0.87, [95% CI 0.74–1.02], mortality RR 1.05 [95% CI 0.77 to 1.45]
Symptomatic vasospasm 26.5% in intervention group compared with 26% in placebo group, functional outcome scale reduced in the methylprednisolone group with risk difference 19.3% [95% CI 0.5–37.9%]; outcome poor in 15% of patients in the methylprednisolone group versus 34% in the placebo group
Overall, use of intrathecal thrombolytics was associated with significant reductions in the development of poor outcomes (OR 0.52, 0.34–0.78, ), DINDs (OR 0.54, 0.34–0.87, ), and angiographic vasospasm (OR 0.32, 0.15–0.70, )
Absence of symptomatic vasospasm, occurrence of low density areas associated with vasospasm on CT, and occurrence of adverse events were similar between the two groups; the clinical outcomes were more favorable in the fasudil group than in the nimodipine group ()
There was no significant difference between the two groups at the end of follow-up for the primary outcome, death: OR: 0.89, [95% CI 0.74 to 1.06], or in poor outcome (death, vegetative state, or severe disability) OR 1.04 [95% CI 0.90 to 1.21]; fewer patients developed delayed cerebral ischaemia in the tirilazad group than in the control group OR 0.80 [95% CI 0.69 to 0.93]; subgroup analyses did not demonstrate any significant difference in effects of tirilazad on clinical outcomes
No differences were demonstrated in the incidence of vasospasm and adverse events; patients receiving EPO had a decreased incidence of severe vasospasm from 27.5 to 7.5% (), reduced DIDs with new cerebral infarcts from 40.0 to 7.5% (), a shortened duration of impaired autoregulation (ipsilateral side, ), and more favorable outcome at discharge (favorable Glasgow outcome scale score, ); among the 71 survivors, the EPO group had fewer deficits measured with National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (median score 2 versus 6, )
