Objective To systematically evaluate the effectiveness and safety of omalizumab in treating allergic bronchial asthma. Methods The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about omalizumab in treating allergic bronchial asthma were searched in databases such as MEDILINE, EMbase, The Cochrane Library, CBM, CNKI, VIP and WanFang Data from inception to April 2013. The references of included studies and relevant conference proceedings were also retrieved manually. Two reviewers independently screened the literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted the data, and assessed the quality, and then RevMan 5.1 software was used for meta-analysis. Results A total of 13 RCTs involving 4 195 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that: a) Compared with the control group, the trial group revealed lower acute exacerbation of asthma during treatment (RR=0.71, 95%CI 0.65 to 0.77, Plt;0.000 01), and higher rate of patients achieved best/better results in Global Evaluation of Treatment Effectiveness (GETE) (RR=1.61, 95%CI 1.32 to 1.97, Plt;0.000 01). More patients could reduce the inhaled cortisteroid (ICS) by 50% during both treatment (RR=1.40, 95%CI 1.29 to 1.52) and 24-week follow-up period (RR=1.69, 95%CI 1.41 to 2.03). And it also increased the ratio of patients whose Asthma Quality Of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) score got improved by 0.5 and 1.5 socres. b) There were no significant differences in the incidence of overall adverse events (RR=1.01, 95%CI 0.98 to 1.04) and severe adverse events (RR=0.94, 95CI 0.68 to 1.28). c) There might be the effects of omalzumab in improving lung function and reducing rescue medication use, but they were not obviously observed in the studies. Conclusion In the treatment of asthma, omalizumab can decrease the acute exacerbation of asthma and ICS use, and it is safer to improve the therapeutic effects and quality of life.
