OBJECTIVEPharmacological intervention is an important means for the treatment of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). As meta-analyses and randomized controlled clinical trials based on evidence-based medicine are able to provide the most reliable evidence for clinical practice, this study searched several databases in order to find the clinical evidence for the pharmacological treatment of neonatal HIE.

METHODSMeta-analyses and randomized (or quasi-randomized) controlled trials (RCT) for pharmacological therapy of HIE in term or late preterm newborn infants were searched from the databases of MEDLINE, EMBASE, Oxford Neonatal Group and Cochrane Library. The relevant literatures were statistically analyzed.

RESULTSFour Meta-analyses and thirteen RCTs were found to be involved in barbiturate, allopurinol, magnesium sulfate, mannitol, naloxone and dopamine therapy. None of the drugs could significantly decrease the mortality and the incidence of seizure or severe neurodevelopmental disabilities in newborn infants with HIE.

CONCLUSIONSCurrent clinical evidence indicates that no individual drug could decrease mortality and improve the neurodevelopmental outcomes in infants with HIE. Problems such as small scale in sampling and discrepancy in the identification of drug efficacy which exist in the clinical trials might lead to the uncertain effect of the drugs, and large sized and collaborative clinical trials are needed in the future.