Abstract:

Objective To systematically evaluate the clinical effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese and Western medicine therapy in the treatment of pulmonary multidrug-resistant bacterial infection. Methods We systematically searched Cochrane Clinical Trial Database, PubMed Database, China Knowledge Network (CNKI), VIP and Wanfang Database for all clinical research literature about traditional Chinese medicine therapy in the treatment of multidrug-resistant pulmonary bacterial infection which were enlisted before September 30th, 2020. Twenty-one clinical studies were finally included following our searching strategy. According to the modified Jadad scale, two researchers independently evaluated quality of those literature and extracted data. A total of 714 cases were included in the control group using conventional therapy, and 741 cases in the treatment group using traditional Chinese medicine combined with conventional therapy. RevMan 5.3 software was used to evaluate the effective rate, pulmonary infection score, improvement of chemical indexes (procalcitonin, C-reactive protein (CRP)) and adverse reactions of patients. Results Meta-analysis showed that the effective rate of the treatment group was significantly higher than that of the control group (OR=4.63,95%CI=3.28-6.55), and the pulmonary infection score of the treatment group was significantly lower than that of the control group (Z=2.07, P=0.04, MD=-1.08, 95%CI=-2.11--0.06). In addition, the treatment group also had advantages in reducing CRP values (Z=2.24, P=0.03, MD=-5.02, 95%CI=-9.41--0.63). At the same time, there was no additional increase in the incidence of adverse reactions in patients in the treatment group compared with the control group, suggesting that the safety of the treatment group was better (Z=0.83, P=0.41, OR=1.48, 95%CI=0.59-3.72). However, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups when comparing the values of procalcitonin (Z=1.38, P=0.17, MD=-0.28, 95%CI=-0.68-0.12). Conclusion The combination of traditional Chinese and Western medicine is safe and effective in treating pulmonary multidrug-resistant bacteria infection.

Key words: Medicine, Chinese traditional, Drug resistance, multiple, bacterial, Lung, Infection, Meta-analysis