Combined Therapy of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy with Breviscapine and Mecobalamin: A Systematic Review and a Meta-Analysis of Chinese Studies

OBJECTIVE A meta-analysis on combined therapy of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) with breviscapine and mecobalamin was performed to evaluate the efficacy of this therapy. METHODS Six English databases (Medline, Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and CINAHL) and four Chinese databases (China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP Journals Database, CBM, and Wanfang database) were searched for studies on the clinical trials in which DPN was treated with breviscapine and mecobalamin, and RevMan 5.1 package was employed for analyzing pooled trials and publication bias. RESULTS A total of 17 articles including 1398 DPN patients were identified. Homogeneity was observed among different studies (P = 0.74). The efficacy of combined therapy with breviscapine and mecobalamin was significantly better than that in control group [P < 0.0001 (OR = 5.01, 95% CI: 3.70-6.78)]. CONCLUSION Available findings suggest that the therapeutic efficacy of breviscapine combining mecobalamin is superior to mecobalamin alone, and this strategy is required to be popularized in clinical practice.