This study aims to systematically review the efficacy and safety of Shufeng Jiedu Capsules in the treatment of influenza. The randomized controlled trial(RCT) of Shufeng Jiedu Capsules alone or in combination with conventional western medicine for treating influenza were retrieved from PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, SinoMed, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, and ClinicalTrails.gov. The data analysis was performed in RevMan 5.4.1. The Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool was used to evaluate the quality of the involved RCT, and GRADEpro GDT to assess the quality of the evidence. A total of 11 RCTs involving 1 836 patients were included in this study. Compared with conventional western medicine, Shufeng Jiedu Capsules/Shufeng Jiedu Capsules + conventional western medicine improved the response rate(RR=1.09, 95%CI[1.03, 1.15], P=0.002), shortened the time to relief of cough, and increased the 3-day sore throat relief rate, whereas there was no significant difference in the time to fever abatement, the time to relief of sore throat, 3-day cough relief rate, or 3-day runny nose relief rate. Subgroup-analysis showed that Shufeng Jiedu Capsules + conventional western medicine improved the response rate(RR=1.11, 95%CI[1.08, 1.15], P<0.000 01), shortened the time to relief of cough, and increased the 3-day relief rate of symptoms(cough, sore throat, and runny nose) compared with conventional western medicine alone, while there was no significant difference in the time to fever abatement or the time to relief of sore throat. Shufeng Jiedu Capsules alone could not improve the response rate(RR=0.97, 95%CI[0.93, 1.02], P=0.19). In addition, Shufeng Jiedu Capsules/Shufeng Jiedu Capsules + conventional western medicine vs conventional western medicine were no significant difference in adverse reactions(RR=0.98, 95%CI[0.57, 1.69], P=0.95). The available evidence suggests that Shufeng Jiedu Capsules is effective and safe in the treatment of influenza, and the combination of Shufeng Jiedu Capsules with conventional western medicine can accelerate the relief of symptoms. However, since the number and quality of the included studies were low, the above findings remained to be further verified by multicenter RCT with large sample sizes.
Keywords: Chinese patent medicine; Meta-analysis; Shufeng Jiedu Capsules; influenza; systematic review.