Efficacy and safety of lung-protective ventilation in neurosurgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials

Methods: We systematically searched the PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and WANFANG databases (2000-2025) for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing lung-protective ventilation (LPV) with conventional ventilation in craniotomy patients. The primary outcome was the incidence of overall postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs). The secondary outcomes included intracranial pressure (ICP), pulmonary infection, atelectasis, oxygenation index, and lung compliance. All analyses were performed using Review Manager 5.2. Results: = 14%). Conclusion: This meta-analysis demonstrates that LPV effectively reduces PPCs (moderate-quality evidence) and does not elevate ICP (low- to moderate-quality evidence). Although conclusions regarding ICP are based on surrogate measures, further large-scale RCTs with standardized measures of invasive ICP and consistent definitions of PPCs and LPV are required to validate our findings.