title: Meta-analysis of Statin Use for the Acute Therapy of Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Growing evidence demonstrates the neuroprotective effects of statins, and the risk to develop an intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) using statins has been refuted. However, some controversy remains regarding their role in the acute phase after ICH onset. Therefore, we performed a systematic review to investigate this issue.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched in MEDLINE, Web of Knowledge, and Scopus databases for studies examining the outcome in patients with spontaneous ICH and statin use. The analysis was performed for short-term (≤3 months) and long-term outcome (≥6 months) and a further subanalysis considered studies seeking for the effects of the discontinuation of statin after ICH onset. A random-effect model was applied, and country was used as a cofactor for meta-regression; odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) are offered.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 17 studies were included, only 1 pseudo cohort trial assessed the new use of statin after ICH onset and 3 studies evaluated the suspension of statin after ICH onset, the rest of the studies focused on the effect of the regular use of statin before ICH onset. The number of patients with an ICH exposed and not exposed to statins were 3455 and 11,821, respectively. The absolute short-term mortality was 27.3% in statin users and 33% in nonusers that represented a significant risk reduction of mortality (OR, .73; 95% CI, .54-.97). For long-term mortality, the effect was less evident (OR, .71; 95% CI, .43-1.15). The analysis of the 3 studies assessing the discontinuation of statins suggested a reduction of mortality risk by continuing statin (OR, .14; 95% CI, .1-.20).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current evidence suggests that continuing statin after ICH onset might be highly related to improvement of the outcome of patients with ICH. Despite this strong suggestion, randomized controlled trials should be performed to further investigate this association.
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany. Electronic address: jhtapiap@gmail.com.
authors.forename: J Humberto
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Tapia Pérez
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinik Otto von Guericke Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: O Can
authors.initials: OC
authors.lastname: Yildiz
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinik Otto von Guericke Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nimsky
mesh_terms: D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors
keywords: Intracerebral hemorrhage; meta-analysis; mortality; statins