Effects of erythropoietin on neurological performance of patients with traumatic brain injury: a systematic literature review

Previous studies have indicated that administering erythropoietin (EPO) can have a beneficial impact on the clinical outcomes of patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). This review examines the possible therapeutic effects EPO can have neuronal functions, neurological performance, and neurological recovery.
The PubMed and Scopus databases were systematically searched on the 5th June, 2015, using the following search strategy: (“traumatic brain injury” OR “brain trauma”) AND (erythropoietin OR EPO) to identify relevant articles in which the effect of erythropoietin on patients with TBI was assessed. No time limitation was defined as the inclusion criteria. All available studies were extracted and categorized based on the purpose of this study.
Of the 908 articles in total that were identified during the initial database search, 901 documents were excluded from further examination because they did not meet the predefined inclusion/exclusion criteria. The total number of patients enrolled in the selected literature was 798. Of these, the use of EPO failed to show significant improvement in 113 patients.
Previous studies have shown that EPO may represent a valuable neuroprotectant that is useful in the treatment of neonatal brain injury, neurodegeneration, and TBI. Studies on animal TBI models have also found that recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) reduces the development of post-traumatic brain edema.
EPO may represent a potential therapeutic approach for the treatment of TBI. In addition, it can improve the patients› recovery prospects and reduce in-hospital mortality and morbidity.