Combination of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine to Improve the Cure Rate of Elderly Patients with Severe Novel Coronavirus Infection

Objective: To study the curative effect of traditional Chinese and western medicine on novel coronavirus's (COVID-19) patients in Jiangmen Central Hospital. Methods: This study was a retrospective cohort study. A total of 582 cases of COVID-19 patients admitted to Jiangmen Central Hospital from January 2020 to March 31, 2023 were collected, and five indicators, such as cure rate, improvement rate, inefficiency rate, mortality rate and hospitalization time, were analyzed, and the curative effects and treatment days under different treatment methods were compared among the integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine group, the western medicine group and the Chinese medicine group. Results: There was no significant difference in the cure rate, improvement rate, inefficiency rate and mortality rate of ordinary patients of all ages and severe middle and light years (≤65 years old) after treatment with integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine, pure western medicine or pure Chinese medicine (P > 0.05). The cure rate and effective rate of severe elderly patients (> 65 years old) were significantly higher than that of pure western medicine group (P < 0.05) and the ineffective rate was significantly lower than that of western medicine group (P < 0.01). There was no significant difference in improvement rate and mortality (P > 0.05). Except severe young patients (≤40 years old), the treatment time of western medicine group was significantly shorter than that of traditional Chinese medicine group and traditional Chinese and western medicine treatment group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: The combination of traditional Chinese and western medicine can significantly improve the cure rate and effective rate of elderly patients and reduce the inefficiency of their treatment. Compared with Chinese medicine, western medicine has a better effect in shortening hospitalization time.