| Objective To assess the clinical effectiveness, safety and economic attributes of intravascular low lever He-Ne laser irradiation on blood (ILIB ) for acute ischemic stroke, and to provide the best available evidence for supplying health technology.Materials and Methods Searches were performed in CCTR, DARE, ACP Journal Club, Cochrance DSR, Medline, and CBM-disc. And we handsearched some important Chinese journals. In addition, we tracked down the reference lists of papers related to ILIB. Two reviews independently assessed the methodological quality of studies and extracted data. Discussion or the third party when needed resolved the disagreement. The following outcomes were assessed: death or dependency at the end of follow-up, adverse events of ILIB, length and cost of hospitalization, measures of neurological deficit at the end of treatment, quality of life. Data were processed by Revman4.2 from the Cochrane collaboration. Results 47 potential trials were identified, of which 18 trials (include 1882 patients) were eligible. 20 trials are waiting to be assessed. All included trialsof poor quality were performed in China. Numbers of death and dependency at the end of long-term follow-up at least three months, length and cost of hospitalization were not reported in all included trials. ILIB was associated with a significant improvement in neurological deficit (Peto OR 0.35, 95%CI 3.15-5.45).At the end of treatment, there was a non-significant trend towards fewer death (Peto OR 0.35, 95%CI 0.08-1.60) than in that the control group. The reported adverse events of ILIB appeared to be rare (2/588 0.36). Conclusions The methodological qualities of all included trials are too poor to conclude that it is safe, effective or economical in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke. Further high-quality randomized controlled trials should be carried out to test the effectiveness, the safety and the economic attributes of ILIB.
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