TCM aerosol inhalation treatment in acute exacerbations of chronic bronchitis: a meta-analysis

Objectives: To determine whether traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) aerosol inhalation treatment is effective in the treatment of acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis. Methods: Search double-blind randomised clinical trials (RCT) about the use of TCM aerosol inhalation in patient with acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis via data base including Chinese biomedicine literature database, Wanfang Data, CNKI, Pubmed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library from the beginning to October 2016. Quality evaluation, data extraction and data analysis of these RCT was carried out with reference to the Cochrane systematic review. Results: 16 studies with 738 patients in TCM aerosol inhalation group and 675 in control group were included. The results of meta-analysis showed, (1) TCM aerosol inhalation group could improve the total cure rate. (2) TCM aerosol inhalation could increase the expression of IL-2 while decrease the expression of IL-8 and MDA in sputum and blood. (3) TCM aerosol inhalation could improve the symptoms of cough, cough with sputum, cough with dyspnea and lung wet rales. It also improve the symptoms of cough, expectorate and lung wet rales. (4) Shorten the time of cough and lung rale. (5) The adverse reactions were light only with 1 occurrence of nausea and vomiting. Conclusions: The use of TCM aerosol inhalation in the treatment of acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis was effective. However, the inclusion researches quality were not very high, which only provided limited evidence for clinical application. Higher-quality randomized controlled trials were needed for further study