Therapeutic effect of integrating Chinese patent medicine Xuesaitong Injection and western medicine in treating patients with hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage: A prospective randomized controlled trial

Introduction: Hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage (HICH) is a severe stroke and treatment using conventional western medicine is far from desirable. It has been suggested that activating blood circulation to remove stasis is safe and effective in the treatment of HICH. This study was to investigate whether Traditional Chinese patent medicine Xuesaitong Injection (XST) combined with conventional western medicine therapy could improve hematoma absorption and enhance neurological recovery of HICH patients. Methods: 224 eligible HICH patients were randomly assigned to either an XST group (XST integrated with western medicine) or a control group (conventional western medicine alone). 206 patients completed the trial. The primary outcome was the rate of functional independent patients with a modified Rankin scale (mRS) score 0-2 at the 90th day follow-up. Secondary outcomes were changes in National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores, activities of daily living (ADL) scores and the hematoma volume after two weeks of intervention. Results: On the 90th day of follow-up, the rate of mRS score 0-2 in the XST group was 49% while 31.7% for control group, with noticeable difference between (P = 0.012). After two weeks of intervention, Hematoma volume (P = 0.006) and Average NIHSS (P = 0.026) scores decreased markedly for XST group than the control one. Average ADL scores in the XST group was 55.2 +/- 10.5, and in the control group was 51.8 +/- 9.7 (P = 0.018). Conclusion: Combination of XST and conventional western medicine improved intracerebral hematoma absorption remarkably and enhanced neurological recovery. XST could be an effective adjuvant for the treatment of HICH patients.