Traditional Chinese medicine as monotherapy or combined with oseltamivir in the treatment of H1N1 influenza:a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective This study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese medicine,alone or in combination with oseltamivir,in patients with H1N1 Influenza.Methods In the present study,we searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials,PUBMED,EMBASE,Chinese Biomedical Literature Database,China Science and Technology Journal Database,China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database,and WanFang Data for studies published in or before February 8,2022.Data were extracted and checked by two investigators.Review Manager 5.4 and STATA statistical software 16.0 were used for the data analysis.Results We identified 22 individual studies reporting data from 2292 individuals with H1N1 influenza.Compared with oseltamivir,the fever clearance duration[MD=-3.99,95%CI(-6.89,-1.09)]and sore throat relief time[MD=-5.39,95%CI(-10.19,-0.59)]in the intervention group of traditional Chinese medicine monotherapy or combined with oseltamivir were shorter.Maxingshigan was the primary component of Lianhuaqingwen.The subgroup analyses indicated that Maxingshigan shortened fever clearance time[MD=-3.23,95%CI(-5.60,-0.85)],and also had certain advantages in relieving sore throat[RR=-4.55,95%CI(-10.04,0.95)].However,as for the effective rate,fever duration,cough disappearance time,hospital length of stay,clinical symptoms time as well as viral shedding duration,there were no significant differences between the two groups.Besides,no serious adverse effects were reported in the included studies.Conclusion Although we couldn’t get a definitive conclusion due to the small sample sizes and high risk of bias in the included studies,most traditional Chinese medicine showed similar effects to oseltamivir in treating H1N1 influenza.Some were showed to have a statistically significant shorter time of fever clearance and sore throat remission when they were used alone or in combination with oseltamivir and were well-tolerated treatment,such as Maxingshigan.