Background: Chronic atrophic gastritis is a significant premalignant lesion of gastric carcinoma. There is a great need to prevent the progression to gastric carcinoma through early intervention and treatment for chronic atrophic gastritis. Weifuchun, a famous Chinese patent drug, has been widely used for chronic atrophic gastritis in China. However, it remains unclear whether Weifuchun is effective for atrophic gastritis.
Objective: To determine the effectiveness and safety of Weifuchun for chronic atrophic gastritis.
Methods: We systematically retrieved seven databases (Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang database, Chinese Scientific Journals Database, and Chinese Biological Medical Database) from their inception to October 5, 2022. Methodological quality was examined using the Cochrane Risk of bias tool. We also used RevMan 5.4 software for statistical analysis to examine the effectiveness and safety of Weifuchun.
Results: Fifteen studies with 1,488 patients were enrolled in this meta-analysis. The study indicated that Weifuchun was more effective (RR 1.52; 95% CI 1.41, 1.63; p<0.00001) than Western medicine and other Chinese patent medicine. In addition, Weifuchun was more effective in improving gastric mucosal under gastroscopy, improving histopathologic changes of gastric mucosal, and inhibiting Helicobacter pylori. However, no significant difference in safety was examined between Weifuchun and the control group (RR 2.83; 95% CI 0.85, 9.38; P = 0.09).
Conclusions: The meta-analysis revealed a significant statistical difference with Weifuchun in effectiveness compared to the control group. However, there was no significant difference in safety. Thus, more high-quality clinical studies are needed in the future.
Trial registration: Registration number CRD42022365703.
Copyright: © 2023 Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.