Efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine as adjunctive therapy in sepsis patients with bloodstream infection:a propensity-matched analysis

OBJECTIVE:To investigate the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine in treating sepsis patients with bloodstream infection.METHODS:A 6-year retrospective study was carried out at a university hospital in China.Adult sepsis patients with bloodstream infection were included.The primary outcome was 28-day mortality after admission.Propensity score method was used to adjust for possible confounding.28-day mortality was estimated by KaplanMeier analysis and compared using the log-rank test.Cox regression analysis was carried out to identify factors impacting in-hospital mortality outcomes.RESULTS:Following the application of the propensity score method,a total of 176 patients were included.The all-cause 28-day mortality in the control group and Chinese herbal medicine group was 21.6%and 14.8%,respectively.Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that Chinese herbal medicine was associated with a lower hazard ratio(HR)in all-cause 28-day death compared with the control group[HR=0.44,95%CI(0.22,0.90),P<0.05].The complications were similar between the two groups(P>0.05).Blood-activating and stasis-eliminating herb administration was associated with reduced inhospital mortality among sepsis patients with bloodstream infection[HR=0.54,95%CI(0.34,0.94),P<0.05].CONCLUSIONS:Chinese herbal medicine,especially the blood-activating and stasis-eliminating herb,might have certain efficacy and safety in treating sepsis patients with bloodstream infection.Clinicians should prescribe blood-activating and stasis-eliminating herb in treating these two coalescent critical diseases as long as no contraindications exist.However,further studies are needed to validate our results.