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Frontiers of Medicine >> 2020, Volume 14, Issue 6 doi: 10.1007/s11684-020-0813-6

Chinese herbal medicine reduces mortality in patients with severe and critical coronavirus disease 2019: a retrospective cohort study

. Wuhan No.1 Hospital (Wuhan Integrated TCM & Western Medicine Hospital), Wuhan 430022, China.. Guang’anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China.. GCP ClinPlus Co., Ltd., Beijing 100160, China.. Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China.. Hubei University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Wuhan 430060, China

Received: 2020-08-12 Accepted: 2020-09-14 Available online: 2020-09-14

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Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) in patients with severe/critical coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this retrospective study, data were collected from 662 patients with severe/critical COVID-19 who were admitted to a designated hospital to treat patients with severe COVID-19 in Wuhan before March 20, 2020. All patients were divided into an exposed group (CHM users) and a control group (non-users). After propensity score matching in a 1:1 ratio, 156 CHM users were matched by propensity score to 156 non-users. No significant differences in seven baseline clinical variables were found between the two groups of patients. All-cause mortality was reported in 13 CHM users who died and 36 non-users who died. After multivariate adjustment, the mortality risk of CHM users was reduced by 82.2% (odds ratio 0.178, 95% CI 0.076–0.418; <0.001) compared with the non-users. Secondly, age (odds ratio 1.053, 95% CI 1.023–1.084; <0.001) and the proportion of severe/critical patients (odds ratio 0.063, 95% CI 0.028–0.143; <0.001) were the risk factors of mortality. These results show that the use of CHM may reduce the mortality of patients with severe/critical COVID-19.

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