AIM: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of ganciclovir combined with traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)in treatment of herpes simplex keratitis(HSK).

METHODS: All randomized controlled trials(RCTs)of ganciclovir combined with TCM for HSK were searched in CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, PubMed, Cochrane Library and EMbase database. The clinical endpoints of the total effective rate, relapse rate, heal time, and adverse reaction rate were collected to assess the drugs' efficacy and safety. The improved Jadad Scale was used to evaluate the methodological quality of included literatures. The RevMan5.3 software and Stata 12.0 were applied for meta-analysis.

RESULTS: We finally included 15 RCTs involving 1 285 patients. As for the total effective rate, relapse rate and heal time, significant differences were noted between ganciclovir combined with TCM group and ganciclovir alone group. For the total effective rate, RR and 95%CI were 1.23(1.15～1.31)according to the number of patients and 1.18(1.02-1.38)according to the number of diseased eyes. For relapse rate, RR and 95%CI were 0.25(0.17-0.36). For heal time, MD and 95%CI were -7.58(-10.89 to -4.26). No statistic difference of adverse reaction rate between the two groups was observed \〖RR=0.53, 95%CI(0.23-1.22)\〗. The side effects in the two groups were mild and could be relieved by themselves.

CONCLUSION: The ganciclovir combined with TCM can improve the total efficacy, reduce the relapse rate, and shorten the course of treatment for HSK with good safety.