Efficiency of Integrated Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine on Outcomes in Patients with Sepsis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background:Sepsis is a life-threatening disease with high mortality and a poor prognosis,partly due to a lack of effective treatments.Therefore,more effective treatments are urgently needed.Methods:Eight databases were searched for use of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) for sepsis.A meta-analysis was performed using Stata 15.0 software.The 28-day mortality,length of hospital stay,and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation Ⅱ(APACHE-Ⅱ) score were the outcomes of this study.The Cochrane Collaboration tool for assessing risk of bias was used for quality assessment.Results:Ten studies with a total of 847 patients were included in this meta-analysis.Compared with the control group,the experimental group had lower 28-day mortality(relative risk [RR] 0.67;95% confidence interval [CI] 0.53 to 0.84;P=0.001),shorter hospital stay(weighted mean difference [WMD]-2.17;95% CI:-3.2 to -1.14;P=0.000) and lower APACHE-Ⅱ score(WMD-2.164;95% CI:-3.236 to -1.091;P=0.000).Conclusion:Our results demonstrate that TCM together with standard Western medicine was associated with significantly lower 28-day mortality,APACHE Ⅱ scores,and shorter hospital intensive care unit stays,suggesting that TCM might be an effective alternative treatment for sepsis.