Background. Herb-derived compound andrographolide sulfonate (called Xiyanping injection) recommended control measure for severe hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) by the Ministry of Health (China) during the 2010 epidemic. However, there is a lack of good quality evidence directly comparing the efficacy of Andrographolide Sulfonate combination therapy with conventional therapy. Methods. 230 patients were randomly assigned to 7–10 days of Andrographolide Sulfonate 5–10 mg/Kg/day and conventional therapy, or conventional therapy alone. Results. The major complications occurred less often after Andrographolide Sulfonate (2.6% versus 12.1%; risk difference [RD], 0.94; 95% CI, 0.28–1.61; P = 0.006). Median fever clearance times were 96 hours (CI, 80 to 126) for conventional therapy recipients and 48 hours (CI, 36 to 54) for Andrographolide Sulfonate combination-treated patients (χ 2 = 16.57, P < 0.001). The two groups did not differ in terms of HFMD-cause mortality (P = 1.00) and duration of hospitalization (P = 0.70). There was one death in conventional therapy group. No important adverse event was found in Andrographolide Sulfonate combination therapy group. Conclusions. The addition of Andrographolide Sulfonate to conventional therapy reduced the occurrence of major complications, fever clearance time, and the healing time of typical skin or oral mucosa lesions in children with severe HFMD.

The combined CM and WM therapy achieved a better therapeutic efficacy in treating severe HFMD than the WM therapy alone. Reduning or Xiyanping Injections may become an important complementary therapy to WM for relieving the symptoms of severe HFMD. (Registration No. NCT01145664).

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) combined with Western medicine in the treatment of patients with common hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) by conducting a prospective, controlled, and randomized trial. Methods A total of 452 patients with common HFMD were randomly assigned to receive Western medicine alone (n = 220) or combined with TCM (Reduning or Xiyanping injections) (n = 232). The primary outcome was the incidence rate of rash/herpes disappearance within 5 days, while secondary outcomes included the incidence rate for fever, cough, lethargy, agitation, and vomiting clearance within 5 days. Results The rash/herpes disappearance rate was 45.5% (100/220) in Western medicine therapy group, and 67.2% (156/232) in TCM and Western medicine combined therapy group, with significant difference (P < 0.001). Moreover, TCM remarkably increased the incidence rate of secondary disappearance, which was 56.4% in Western medicine therapy group and 71.4% in TCM and Western medicine combined therapy group (P = 0.001). No drug-related adverse events were observed. Conclusions It’s suggested that the integrative TCM and Western medicine therapy achieved a better therapeutic efficacy. TCM may become an important complementary therapy on relieving the symptoms of HFMD.