Is Chinese Medicine Injection Applicable for Treating Acute Lung Injury and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials / 中国结合医学杂志

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE@#To assess the efficacy and safety of Chinese medicine injection (CMI) for treating acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS).@*METHODS@#Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were identified by searching 3 English databases and 4 Chinese databases from their inceptions until February 2019. The Cochrane Handbook was used to evaluate risk of bias in the included studies. Data analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.3.3 software.@*RESULTS@#A total of 19 eligible RCTs involving 1,334 participants was included in this systematic review and meta-analysis. The main meta-analysis showed that CMI combined with conventional therapy (CT) was more effective than CT alone in reducing the acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE) H score [mean difference (MD) -1.74 points, 95% confidence interval (CI) -2.77 to -0.71, I@*CONCLUSIONS@#CMI as an adjuvant therapy showed great potential benefits for the treatment of ALI/ARDS. However, we could not make a definite conclusion due to low quality of included studies and uncertain security. Future studies should focus on improving research design, especially in blindness and placebo. The reporting of adverse events was also needed.