SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1551652
Assessment of the Efficacy of Chinese Herbal Medicine Combined with Western Medicine for Treating Severe Acute Pancreatitis-Related Acute Lung Injury/Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Based on Randomized Controlled Trials
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, Shandong Province, China
- 2Shandong Provincial Hospital, Jinan, China
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Purpose: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) combined with Western medicine (WM) for treating severe acute pancreatitis-related acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (SAP-ALI/ARDS).Methods: A comprehensive search of 12 English and Chinese databases yielded 13 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 917 patients. The experimental group received CHM compounds combined with standard WM, while the control group received only WM. Outcomes included clinical efficacy, inflammatory markers (e.g., TNF-α, IL-6), disease progression indicators (e.g., time to abdominal pain relief, ICU stay), and mortality rates. The Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool was used to assess study quality, and meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.4.Results: The meta-analysis demonstrated that CHM combined with WM significantly improved clinical efficacy (RR = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.17–1.37, P < 0.00001), reduced inflammatory markers (e.g., TNF-α: MD = -18.18 pg/mL, P < 0.00001; IL-6: MD = -24.70 pg/mL, P < 0.00001), and shortened disease progression indicators (e.g., time to abdominal pain relief: MD = -1.56 days, P < 0.00001; ICU stay: MD = -3.27 days, P < 0.00001). However, no significant difference in mortality rates was observed (RR = 0.47, P = 0.96).Conclusions: This study provides robust evidence that the combination of Chinese herbal medicine with Western medicine significantly enhances clinical outcomes for patients with SAP-ALI/ARDS. The findings highlight improvements in inflammatory markers, disease progression indicators, and oxygenation indices. However, the lack of significant differences in mortality rates and the limited methodological rigor of included studies (e.g., blinding and allocation concealment) are notable limitations. Future research should focus on optimizing RCT designs, exploring molecular mechanisms, and investigating long-term outcomes to strengthen the evidence base for integrated therapies.
Keywords: Chinese herbal medicine, Severe acute pancreatitis, Acute Lung Injury, Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Network meta-analysis, Placebo-controlled trials
Received: 07 Jan 2025; Accepted: 23 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Han, Zhang, Shan and Ni. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Qingqiang Ni, niqingqiang@sdfmu.edu.cn
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