AIM To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of combined therapy of orally-taking traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and moxibustion treatment in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF).
METHODS Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) concerning the effect of combined therapy of TCM and moxibustion treatment in CHF patients were collected from 8 databases, namely, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, and SinoMed databases. Literatures were screened on the basis of the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Review Manager 5.4 was used to make a meta-analysis after information extracting and quality evaluating. Thirteen studies involving 1117 patients were included, with 558 patients in the control group (treated only with conventional Western medicine treatment) and 559 patients in the experimental group (treated with the combined therapy of orally-taking TCM and moxibustion treatment on the basis of the control group).
RESULTS Meta analysis showed that compared with conventional Western medicine treatment alone, the combination of oral Chinese medicine and moxibustion therapy on the basis of conventional Western medicine treatment can significantly improve the overall clinical effective rate 95% CI (1.13～1.24), P<0.01, increase left ventricular ejection fraction 95% CI (5.06～9.15), P<0.01, increase 6-minute walking distance 95% CI (17.28～82.05), P<0.01, reduce N terminal pro B type natriuretic peptide 95% CI (−3.90～−0.64), P<0.01, and reduce left ventricular end-diastolic dimension 95% CI (−6.42～−1.34), P<0.01. The differences were statistically significant. In terms of adverse reactions, compared to using conventional Western medicine treatment alone, the combination of oral Chinese medicine and moxibustion on the basis of conventional Western medicine treatment did not significantly increase adverse reactions.
CONCLUSION Our results have shown that the combined therapy of orally-taking TCM and moxibustion treatment is effective and safe in CHF patients to a certain extent. However, limited by the quantity and quality of included studies, more high-quality and large-scale RCTs involving multiple research centers are still needed.
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