Objective: To systematically evalate the safety and efficacy of the combination of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine in treating cough variant asthma in children. Method: We searched The Cochrane Library

Pubmed

Embase

CNKI

CBM

VIP and Wanfang Data from databasethrough computer for data as at June 8

2015.All of randomized controlled trials(RCTs) of the combination of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine on in treating cough variant asthma in children were searched

and research literatures included in the RCTs were also traced. Two researchers independently conducted the strict quality evaluation and data extraction for the included studies and made a Meta-analysis by using RevMan 5.3 software. Result: Totally 33 RCTs involving 3106 patients were included into the study. The Meta-analysis results showed that compared with western medicine

the combination of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine can significantly improve the clinical effective rate[OR=4.68

95%CI(13.68

5.95)

P<0.00001]

reduce recurrence rate[OR=0.34

95%CI(0.25

0.45)

P<0.00001]

improve forced expiratory volume in one second(FEV1%)[OR=8.53

95%CI(2.19

14.86)

P=0.008]

increase peak expiratory flow(PEF%)[MD=7.01

95%CI(6.07

7.95)

P<0.00001]

shorten coughing time[MD=-4.39

95%CI(-6.25

-2.54)

P<0.00001]

with statistically significant difference in both groups. Conclusion: The combination of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine in treating cough variant asthma in children can effectively improve the clinical effective rate

reduce recurrence rate

improve lung function indexes(FEV1%

PEF%) and

shorten coughing time. However

due to the low methodology and quality and small sample size of included RCTs in this study

more RCTs with a large sample size are required to further verify the efficacy and safety of the combination of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine in treating cough variant asthma in children.