Treatment of constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome by focusing on the liver in terms of Traditional Chinese Medicine: a meta-analysis

ObjectiveTo assess the efficacy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) on constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome by focusing on the liver.MethodsDatabases (domestic and foreign) were searched with the key words “irritable bowel syndrome”, “constipation”, and “Chinese medicine”; the relevant articles were retrieved and evaluated. Cure rate, “remarkable efficacy”, recurrence rate and the incidence of adverse reactions were the outcome indicators. Review Manager ver 5.1 was used for this meta-analysis, and funnel plots used to detect publication bias.ResultsNineteen randomized controlled trials were included and 1510 patients involved. The treatment guided by TCM based on the liver was superior to Western Medicine [odds ratio (OR) =2.46, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.80, 3.35)], cure rate [OR=2.61, 95% CI (1.93, 3.52)], remarkable efficacy [OR=2.68, 95% CI (1.82, 3.95)], recurrence rate [OR=0.19, 95% CI (0.12, 0.29)] and the incidence of adverse reactions [OR=0.24, 95% CI (0.09, 0.65)]. However, funnel plots showed publication bias.ConclusionCompared with Western Medicine, the treatment of IBS-C based on the liver is significantly better but the results must be treated with caution because publication bias was recorded.