Background Traumatic brain injury （TBI） is a heterogeneous condition that can lead to critical LLLness-related corticosteroid insufficiency （CIRCI） causing a high mortality and morbidity.Glucocorticoids were widely used in the clinical management of TBI,but their benefit has been challenged in some studies and their efficacy,especially for treating CIRCI in TBI patients,remains unclear.Methods We conducted a meta-analysis of published data to determine if the controversy is related to clinical dosing and timing of glucocorticoids （GCs） application.We analyzed published reports in four databases （MEDLINE,EMBASE,the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register,and CBMdisc）.The published data were stratified into not only low-and high-dose GCs group but also short-and long-term GCs group to compare their effectiveness in improving TBI outcomes.Results We totally identified 16 reports.For low-dose patients,the pooled relative risks （RRs） for two clinical outcomes of death or a combination of death and severe disability were 0.95 （95% confidence interval （CI）：0.80 to 1.13） and 0.95 （95% CI：0.83 to 1.09）,respectively.The risks for infection and gastrointestinal bleeding were 0.85 （95% CI：0.50 to 1.45） and 0.64 （95% Cl：0.15 to 2.70）,respectively.For high-dose group,the pooled RR of death is 1.14 （95% Cl：1.06 to 1.21）.The pooled RRs for infection and gastrointestinal bleeding for the high-dose patients were 1.04 （95% CI：0.93 to 1.15） and 1.26 （95% CI：0.92 to 1.75）,respectively.For long-term use group,the pooled RRs for two clinical outcomes of death or a combination of death and severe disability were 0.98 （95% CI：0.87 to 1.12） and 1.00 （95% CI：0.90 to 1.11）,respectively.The risks for infection and gastrointestinal bleeding were 0.88 （95% CI：0.71 to 1.11） and 0.96 （95% CI：0.35 to 2.66）,respectively.For short-term use group,the pooled RR of death is 1.15 （95% CI：1.07 to 1.23）,and importantly the effects on infections were beneficial in
