The Effect of Korean Herbal Medicine that Function by Inducing Diuresis for Hypertension: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Abstract

The aim of this study was to review the clinical research on antihypertensive effects of Korean herbal medicines that function by inducing diuresis.Methods: Literature searches were performed using PubMed, Cochrane, CNKI, Wanfang, Cinii, Oasis, KISS, NDSL, RISS, DBPia, with the keywords "利水", "利尿", "高血壓", "hypertension", and "lishui." The search range included only randomized controlled trials that verified the effects of Korean herbal medicine interventions on hypertension. The selected studies were assessed by risk of bias (RoB).Results: 26 reports were selected from a total of 532 identified. For these reports, meta-analysis was performed using Revman 5.3. From this analysis, it was observed that the combined treatment of Korean medicine and antihypertensive drugs had a significantly higher total effective rate (TER) and improvement in systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) than did the use of a single antihypertensive drug. The risk ratio of TER for lowering blood pressure was 1.25. The mean differences of SBP, DBP were -19.63 mm Hg (95% confidential interval (CI), -22.45 mm Hg, -16.80 mm Hg, p<0.00001), and -5.39 mm Hg (95% CI, -7.36 mm Hg, -3.42 mm Hg, p<0.00001) respectively. The use of Korean medicine only did not improve blood pressure, as compared to the use of an antihypertensive drug. Most of items of RoB were unclear, and the methodological quality was low. Conclusions:The combination of antihypertensive drugs and Korean medical treatment can effectively improve SBP, DBP, and TER. This finding could be widely utilized in clinical practice in Korean medicine.