[The effect of Xuebijing injection for severe acute pancreatitis: a Meta analysis]

To assess the efficacy and safety of Xuebijing injection for the treatment of severe acute pancreatitis ( SAP ).

An extensive search of related literatures from the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, China Biology Medicine ( CBM ), CNKI, VIP and Wanfang data up to March 2014 was performed. Randomized controlled trials ( RCTs ) regarding Xuebijing injection for the treatment of SAP were collected regardless of languages. Jadad scale was taken for quality evaluation of the included studies by two researchers. The patients in control group were given conventional treatment, and those of the Xuebijing group were given Xuebijing injection on the top of conventional treatment. The Cochrane Collaboration RevMan 5.2 software was used for data analysis regarding the effect of Xuebijing injection on the mortality, incidence of complication, effective rate, the length of stay in hospital, and the safety of the drug in patients with SAP.

A total of 15 published reports meeting the inclusion criteria were enrolled. The methodological quality of the trials was low. Meta analysis showed that the mortality in Xuebijing group was significantly lower [ odds ratio ( OR ) = 0.37, 95% confidence interval ( 95%CI ) = 0.17 - 0.77, P = 0.008 ], and the incidence of complication was also significantly decreased ( OR = 0.26, 95%CI = 0.14 - 0.45, P < 0.000 01 ) as compared with those of control group. The effective rate in Xuebijing group was significantly higher than that of the control group [ relative risk ( RR ) = 0.85, 95%CI = 0.80-0.91, P < 0.000 01 ]. The length of stay in hospital in Xuebijing group was significantly shorter than that of the control group [ mean difference ( MD ) = -5.28, 95%CI = -6.69 to -3.86, P < 0.000 01 ]. Adverse reactions of Xuebijing injection were reported in 2 studies. The adverse reaction in one study was headache and nausea, which were relieved by adjusting the speed of intravenous infusion, and mild rash was reported in another case, and it disappeared after the withdrawal of Xuebijing.

The currently available evidence shows that Xuebijing injection may have some therapeutic effect on SAP. Because of the low methodological quality of the included trials, multi-center and high-quality RCTs with large sample sizes are needed to provide stronger evidence.