Tanreqing injection combined with conventional Western medicine for acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review.

Objective: In China, most patients with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are usually treated with Tanreqing injection plus conventional Western medicine. However, the value of its use remains uncertain. The objective of this systematic review is to compare the efficacy of Tanreqing injection plus conventional Western medicine with that of conventional Western medicine alone (therapy A versus therapy B, respectively) in the management of acute exacerbations of COPD.

Methods: Literature retrieval was conducted using the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE,(®) EMBASE, Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM), and other electronically available databases from respective inception to August 2009. In addition, manual search of some traditional Chinese journals was performed to identify potential studies. Review authors independently extracted the trial data and assessed the quality of each trial. The following outcomes were evaluated: (1) forced expiratory volume in 1 second as a percentage of the predicted value; (2) arterial partial pressure of oxygen (Po(2)); (3) arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (Pco(2)); (4) length of hospital stay; (5) marked efficacy rate; (6) interleukin-8; and (7) adverse events.

Results: Based on the search strategy, 14 trials involving 954 patients were finally included. Our results showed that compared with therapy B, therapy A improved Po(2), clinical efficacy, and lung function, reduced Pco(2), shortened the length of hospital stay, and was thus more therapeutically beneficial. No serious adverse events were reported.

Conclusions: Within the limitations of this systematic review, we can conclude that compared with therapy B, therapy A may provide more benefits for patients with acute exacerbations of COPD. Further large-scale high-quality trials are warranted.