Effects of Yunanan Baiyao adjunct therapy on postoperative recovery and clinical prognosis of patients with traumatic brain injury: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Background Effective therapies are needed to prevent the secondary injury and poor prognosis associated with emergency craniotomy of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Hypothesis/Purpose The wound-healing medicine Yunnan Baiyao (YB) and Xingnaojing (XNJ) adjunct-therapy may improve the outcome of orthodox mono-therapy (OT). Study design Randomized controlled trial. Methods Eighty patients with moderate-to-severe TBI received emergency craniotomy (within 12 hours after TBI) at the Chinese PLA General Hospital before being randomly assigned to 4 different treatments (n=20) for 7 days: 1) OT; 2) OT+XNJ (i.v. 20 ml/daily); 3) OT+low dose-YB (oral, 1,000 mg/day); 4) OT+high dose-YB, 2,000 mg/day). Results GCS score was improved more quickly and became significantly higher in XNJ, l-YB, h-YB groups than in OT group (P Conclusions YB and XNJ adjunct therapies improved postoperative recovery and clinical prognosis in patients with moderate-to-severe TBI partly through divergent regulation of S100B and SOD pathways. (The trial was registered at Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) trial registration number: ChiCTR2000030280)