ABSTRACT
Objective:To evaluate the effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on cognitive dysfunction after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods:Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of rTMS for treating traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients with cognitive dysfunction were retrieved from the databases of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang Database, VIP and SinoMed from the establishment of these databases to June, 2021. Two researchers independently screened the articles, extracted the data, and evaluated the quality. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4. Results:A total of ten RCTs with 368 patients were included. Subgroup analysis showed that rTMS could improve the single cognitive function (SMD = 1.00, 95%CI 0.04 to 1.96, P = 0.04) but for overall cognitive function (SMD = 0.47, 95%CI -0.05 to 0.98, P = 0.08). rTMS was well tolerated, that the adverse reactions such as dizziness and mild headache were not significantly different from the control group (RR = 1.67, 95%CI 0.98 to 2.86, P = 0.06). Conclusions:It is still uncertain in the effectiveness of rTMS on cognitive dysfunction after TBI, but it is well tolerated.