Favorable outcome of adjunctive traditional Chinese medicine therapy in liver cirrhosis: A large cohort study in Southwest China.

Objective: To assess the effects of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) on the survival of patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) in Southwest China.

Design: Single-center, ambispective cohort study conducted from 2012 to 2019.

Setting: Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Dianjiang Chongqing, Southwest China.

Main Outcome Measure: The primary outcome was the effect of TCM on the survival of patients with LC, as assessed with survival analysis and Cox regression model.

Results: Among the 691 patients with LC, 364 (52.68 %) received TCM treatment. The mean (standard deviation) follow-up period was 3.53 (1.62) years for non-TCM users and 4.17 (1.53) years for TCM users (P =  0.184). Multivariate analysis revealed that the use of TCM was associated with a significantly decreased risk of mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 0.41, 95 % confidence interval [CI] = 0.30 - 0.54) compared with no TCM use. Similarly, the cumulative mortality rates were significantly lower among TCM users, across various subgroups of LC aetiologies. Among the commonly used TCM prescriptions, Xiao Chaihu Tang (XCHT, adjusted HR = 0.17, 95 % CI = 0.07 - 0.42), Yinchen Wuling San (adjusted HR = 0.31, 95 % CI = 0.14 - 0.66), Biejia Ruan Gan Jian (adjusted HR = 0.31, 95 % CI = 0.13 - 0.75), and Chaihu Shu Gan San (adjusted HR = 0.33, 95 % CI = 0.19 - 0.57) were the most effective in improving survival.

Conclusions: Our results provide evidence for supporting that adjunctive TCM therapy may potentially improve the survival of patients with liver cirrhosis, and XCHT was the most effective TCM prescription in this study.