RESUMO
Objective To observe the effect of Xijiaodihuang decoction on the release of inflammatory mediators and prognosis in elderly patients with sepsis.Methods A prospective randomized controlled study was conducted. Seventy-four patients with sepsis admitted to the Department of Geriatrics of Changshu Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Affiliated to Nanjing University of TCM from March 2015 to February 2017, and they were divided into a TCM treatment group and a control group randomly, 37 cases in each group, there were 2 patients transferred to other department during the period of study to continue treatment, 2 patients discharged automatically and 1 case transferred to other hospital in the TCM treatment group; and there were 3 patients transferred to other hospital, 1 patient discharged automatically, 1 patient dead in 7 days after entering the control group and 1 patient transferred to other department during the period of observation to continue treatment in the control group. Finally, 32 patients were in TCM treatment group and 31 patients in the control group, completing the study. All patients in the two groups received conventional treatment of sepsis, patients in the TCM treatment group took Xijiaodihuang decoction 100 mL concentrated [rhinoceros horn (replaced with buffalo horn) 30 g, rehmannia root 24 g, peony 12 g, tree peony bark 9 g] taken orally or by nasal feeding, and patients in the control group received the same amount of normal saline, the two groups were treated 1 time a day for consecutive 7 days to complete 1 therapeutic course, then the treatment efficacy was evaluated in the two groups. The differences of serum interleukins (IL-1β, IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), white blood cells (WBC), C-reaction protein (CRP), lactate levels between the two groups were compared before treatment and on the 3rd, 7th and 14th day after treatment, the incidence of staying in intensive care unit (ICU), time of staying in ICU and 28-day mortality were also observed. The 28-day survival rate between two groups was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier survival curve.Results After treatment in the two groups, the levels of IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α had a tendency of increase at first and then decrease. After treatment for 14 days, the IL-1β was significantly lower in the TCM treatment group than that of the control group (ng/L: 83.27±21.84 vs. 96.73±26.33), the levels of IL-6 and TNF-α in TCM treatment group were obviously lower than those in the control group since 7 days after treatment [IL-6 (ng/L): 48.27±24.13 vs. 62.15±24.34, TNF-α (μg/L): 1.41±0.31 vs. 1.96±0.29]. IL-6 and TNF-α were still lower than those in the control group until 14 days after treatment [IL-6 (ng/L): 29.25±18.57 vs. 56.24±23.61, TNF-α (μg/L) 1.35±0.28 vs. 1.83±0.22, allP 0.05). After treatment, the lactate in the control group was gradually decreased, while in the TCM treatment group, the lactate level after treatment presented a tendency firstly decreased and then elevated, and after treatment for 3 days in TCM treatment group, the level of lactate began markedly lower than that in the control group (mmol/L: 1.26±0.43 vs. 2.01±0.59,P < 0.05). The ICU hospitalization rate and ICU length of stay in the TCM treatment group were significantly lower than those in the control group [56.25% (18/32) vs. 83.87% (26/31), (10.2±5.4) days vs. (13.5±5.8) days], and the 28-day mortality was also obviously lower in TCM treatment group than that in control group [9.37% (3/32) vs. 29.03% (9/31)]. Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis showed that the 28-day survival rate in TCM treatment group was significantly higher than that in control group (P = 0.045).Conclusion Xijiaodihuang decoction can reduce the levels of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α and lactate in serum, reduce the incidence of staying in ICU, decrease the time of staying in ICU and improve the prognosis of elderly patients with sepsis.
