Objective: To systematically evaluate the clinical effectiveness and safety of salvianolate injection (SI) in treating acute cerebral infarction (ACI). Method: Randomized controlled trials regarding ACI treated by SI and routine western medicine were searched in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure database

China Science and Technology Journal database

Wanfang database

Chinese Biomedical Literature database

PubMed and Cochrane library. Two reviewers independently retrieved randomized controlled trials(RCTs) and collected information. The Cochrane risk of bias method was used to assess the quality of included studies

and a Meta-analysis was conducted with Review Manager 5.3 software. Result: A total of 7 studies involving 622 participants were included. The pooled results showed that SI group was significantly superior to the routine western medicine group in alleviating neurologic impairment[MD=-2.56

95%CI(-3.19

-1.93)

P<0.000 01]

improving the activities of daily living[MD=-0.54

95%CI(-0.89

-0.19)

P<0.000 01]

reducing the degree of disability[MD=9.90

95%CI (7.21

12.59)

P<0.000 01]

improving cognitive function and quality of life of the acute cerebral infarction patients. Additionally

SI can alsoimprove the total effective rates and reduce the serum levels of C reactive protein. Among them

one article made clear that there was no adverse drug reactions(ADRs) in the studies

2 studies reported 7 ADRs. All of the other literatures did not define the safety. Conclusion: Compared with routine western medicine

the combined use of SI and routine western medicine was more effective

and worth promotionin clinical practice. However

the safety has been defined and shall be further studied with a bigger clinical trial sample size.