Integrated Lianhua-Qingwen and Western Medicine Versus Western Medicine-Only Therapies Against COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an acute respiratory infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome, has resulted in a global outbreak. Objective To systematically review the therapeutic reports on COVID-19 treated with integrated herbal medicine “Lianhua-Qingwen”and Western medicine to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the treatment. Methods PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CNKI, CBM and other databases were searched to locate the clinical trials of integrated Lianhua-Qingwen and Western medicine treatment for COVID-19. The herbal medicine Lianhua-Qingwen reported in the treatments is in the form of capsules or granules. Two researchers of our team independently carried out data extraction and quality assessment of the collected literature according to the Cochrane systematic review methodology, calculated combined relative risk (RR) or weighted mean difference (MD)/standardized mean difference (SMD) . Results This meta-analysis included 13 studies collected, a total of 1182 cases of patients with common type COVID-19. Comparison of integrated Lianhua-Qingwen and Western medicine treatment with conventional Western medicine treatment found that the effective combined RR value was 1.18 (95% CI: 1.09, 1.27; I2 = 37%), and the RR value of CT image improvement rate was 1.12 (95% CI: 1.03, 1.23; I2 = 38%). The rate of progressing to critical cases decreased by 50% (RR: 0.50; 95% CI: 0.35, 0.73; I2 = 0%); the RR value of the fever disappearance rate was 1.43 (95% CI: 1.24, 1.65; I2 = 0%); the RR value of the cough disappearance rate was 1.97 (95% CI: 1.45, 2.68; I2 = 0%); the RR value of the rate of recovery from fatigue was 1.51 (95% CI: 1.15, 2.03; I2 = 0%). Compared with conventional Western medicine treatment, the integrated therapy shortened the duration of fever by 1.33 days (95% CI: -1.92, -0.73; I2 = 5%). The number of adverse reactions decreased by 49% (RR = 0.51; 95% CI: 0.14, 1.82; I2 = 76%). Conclusion Therapy of integrated Lianhua-Qingwen and Western medicine treatment is more effective for the treatment of patients with common type COVID-19, more effective in CT improvement rate, and more effective in reducing the rate of progressing to critical cases significantly and with fewer adverse reactions.