Inclusion Criteria and Study Selection
Two investigators (W.Q. and W.Z.Y.) selected the studies based on the
following inclusion criteria: (1) participants: adults with acute stroke
diagnosed by computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) and without infection; (2)
interventions: prophylactic
antibiotics in addition to conventional treatment within seven days of
the onset of acute stroke, irrespective of the type, dosage, and route
of administration; (3) comparisons: placebo or no treatment in addition
to conventional treatments; (4) outcomes: the primary outcomes were
mortality rate, pneumonia and the secondary outcomes included incidence
of infections (including pneumonia, urinary tract infections,
catheter-related phlebitis, other or unclear origin infections), urinary
tract infections, length of hospital stay,
National Institute of Health
stroke scale (NIHSS) score, Functional Independence (FI, defined as the
proportion of patients with a mRS score of ≤ 2), and adverse events; (5)
studies: RCTs. The studies were
excluded if they were conference abstracts or duplicate publications,
and publications in a language other than English and Chinese. We
performed a preliminary screening by screening the title and abstract
and a second screening by retrieving the full text for further
evaluation to determine whether it was finally included.