A meta-analysis of neuroprotective effect for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the treatment of glaucoma

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the neuroprotective effect of surgery combined with traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)in the treatment of glaucoma by meta-analysis based on clinical controlled trial. METHODS: All the prospective randomized controlled trialsof surgery combined with TCM in the treatment of glaucoma were searched in the databases of Medline (1960-2015.1), CENTRAL (the Cochrane central register of controlled trials 1989-2015.1, EMBASE (1980∼2015.1) and CNKI (1979-2015.1). Two reviewers independently assessed the quality of the included studies, extracted the relevant data and performed a cross-check. The pooled relative risk (RR) or standard mean difference (SMD) of surgery combined with TCM versus western medicine or surgery alone were calculated as the effect size by meta-analysis method. All the data was analyzed by stata11.0 software (http://www.stata.com; Stata Corporation, College Station, TX). RESULTS: Finally, eleven clinical controlledtrails with 843 subjects were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled results indicated that the surgery combined with TCM treatment procedure can significant improve the vision recovery rate compared to control group (RR=1.22, 95% CI:1.06∼1.40, P=0.005); And after treatment, the visual field in combined group was significantly improved compared to control group (SMD=0.26∼95% CI:0.09∼0.43, P=0.003). CONCLUSION: Surgery combined with TCM can improve the vision recovery rate and the visual fieldin the treatment of glaucoma compared to surgery or western medicine alone.