Ischemic stroke(IS) falls under the category of "Zhongfeng" in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Constructing animal models that align with TCM syndrome characteristics is critical for elucidating the mechanisms of TCM therapies. This study systematically analyzed literature published between 2019 and 2024 to evaluate the methodologies and limitations of current TCM syndrome-based animal models for ischemic stroke.The study shows that current models are mostly based on Western medicine‘s cerebral ischemia models, with TCM syndrome-inducing factors added on. This creates a "disease-syndrome integration" compound modeling approach. Common syndrome types include blood stasis/intermingled blood stasis and pathogenic factors/blood stasis damaged by pathogenic factors, and Qi deficiency with blood stasis. However, model construction still faces multiple challenges. These include gender bias in experimental animals, limited species diversity, inadequate standardization of technical parameters, and reliance on subjective observations for traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) syndrome evaluation. These limitations compromise both model stability and clinical applicability. Future research should focus on establishing standardized modeling protocols, enhancing the pathology-syndrome correlation and clinical validation of models, thereby providing more reliable experimental support for TCM research in stroke prevention and treatment.