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The effectiveness and safety of various oral Chinese patent medicines combined with conventional western medicine in treatment of gastro-esophageal reflux disease(GERD) were evaluated using network Meta-analysis. CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMbase, and Web of Science were searched for randomized controlled trial(RCT) of oral Chinese patent medicines combined with conventional western medicine in treatment of GERD from inception to September 2023. The quality of the included studies was assessed using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool, and data analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.4 and Stata 16 software. Forty-seven RCTs were included, involving 10 oral Chinese patent medicines, including Jianwei Yuyang Tablets, Qizhi Weitong Granules, Dalitong Granules, Liuwei Anxiao Capsules, Kangfuxin Liquid, Weisu Granules, Zhizhu Kuanzhong Capsules, Xiaochaihu Granules, Xiaoyao Pills, and Danweikang Capsules. Network Meta-analysis showed that:(1)in terms of effective rate of clinical symptoms, intervention measure ranked first by SUCRA was Dalitong Granules + conventional western medicine.(2)In terms of endoscopic effective rate, intervention measure ranked first by SUCRA was Liuwei Anxiao Capsules + conventional western medicine.(3)In terms of increasing serum gastrin levels, intervention measure ranked first by SUCRA was Weisu Granules + conventional western medicine.(4)In terms of increasing plasma motilin level, intervention measure ranked first by SUCRA was Xiaoyao Pills + conventional western medicine. In terms of symptom scores, quality of life and recurrence rate, only descriptive analyses were performed due to the heterogeneity of the studies, but all studies reported that oral Chinese patent medicines combined with conventional western medicine improved the outcome indicators better than conventional western medicine alone, and the differences were statistically significant. In terms of adverse reactions, there was no significant difference between oral Chinese patent medicine combined with conventional western medicine and conventional western medicine alone. Through cluster analysis, it was found that the comprehensive efficacy of Dalitong Granules + conventional western medicine, Danweikang Capsules + conventional western medicine, Qizhi Weitong Granules + conventional western medicine, Kangfuxin Liquid + conventional western medicine, and Liuwei Anxiao Capsules + conventional western medicine were more prominent, and could improve clinical symptoms and endoscopic inflammation at the same time. The results indicated that oral Chinese patent medicines combined with conventional western medicine in treatment of GERD could improve comprehensive efficacy, alleviate clinical symptoms, and regulate gastrointestinal motility. However, due to limitations such as sample size and quality of the included literature, the conclusions need to be further verified by more large-sample, high-quality studies.
Zhu et al. (Sun,) studied this question.