Evaluation on the Efficacy and Safety of Panax Notoginseng Saponins in the Treatment of Stroke among Elderly People: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 206 Randomized Controlled Trials

Table 3

Certainty assessment of included studies in the meta-analysis.

Interventions

Certainty assessment

No. of patients

Effect size

Certainty

Importance

No. of studies

Study design

Risk of bias

Inconsistency

Indirectness

Imprecision

Other considerations

Intervention group

Control group

Absolute (95% CI)

PNS alone

Neurological status (NIHSS)

77

RCT

Serious^a

Serious^b

Not serious

Not serious

None

4,495

4,094

RR: 1.197 (1.229 lower to 1.165 higher)

Low

CRITICAL

Total clinical efficacy

59

RCT

Serious^a

Serious^b

Not serious

Not serious

None

3,079

2,996

SMD: −0.826 (−0.707 lower to −0.946 higher)

Low

CRITICAL

Daily living activities

11

RCT

Serious^a

Serious^b

Not serious

Serious^c

None

419

420

RR: 1.675 (2.133 lower to 1.218 higher)

Low

CRITICAL

PNS combined with WM/TAU

Neurological status (NIHSS)

100

RCT

Serious^a

Serious^b

Not serious

Not serious

None

5,144

5,105

RR: 1.191 (1.217 lower to 1.165 higher)

Low

CRITICAL

Total clinical efficacy

100

RCT

Serious^a

Serious^b

Not serious

Not serious

None

5,191

5,156

SMD: −1.142 (−0.990 lower to −1.295 higher)

Low

CRITICAL

Daily living activities

44

RCT

Serious^a

Serious^b

Not serious

Not serious

None

2,271

2,237

RR: 1.034 (1.168 lower to 0.900 higher)

Low

CRITICAL

^aAll studies had a high risk of bias based on the ROB assessment; ^bmoderate to high heterogeneity was detected (I²: 42.8% to 92.1%); ^cthe total number of sample size is less than 1,000 as recommended.