Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Polyunsaturated phosphatidylcholine (PPC) for chronic hepatitis. Methods We searched EMBASE (1980May,2003), MEDLINE(1966May,2003), CBM (1979May,2003), The Cochrane Library Issue 2, 2003 and handsearched 8 related Chinese journals. Randomized controlled trials(RCT) comparing PPC versus placebo/no treatment for chronic hepatitis were included with no restrictions of blinding, language and publication. Two reviewers independently performed data extraction and assessed the quality . Data were entered and analyzed by RevMan 4.2 software supplied by the Cochrane Collaboration .Results Six high quality trials involving 568 patients were included. Four studies involving 451 patients showed the clinical effective rate of PPC for chronic hepatitis was 52.5% while the control group was 37.5% with statistical difference [RR1.81,95%CI(1.41,2.33),Z=4.69, Plt;0.00001].A meta-analysis involving three studies with 100 patients showed the PPC can statically improve histopathology of chronic hepatitis comparing with control group [RR 2.58,95%CI (1.61,4.15),Z=3.91,Plt;0.0001].No serious adverse events were reported.Conclusions PPC is a safe medicine used for treating chronic viral hepatitis and may relieve clinical symptoms and signs.At the same time ,it has positive effect on hepatic histopathology for patients .However ,more high quality clinical trials are required.
