Application status and safety countermeasures of traditional Chinese medicine injections

Abstract

The research and development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) injections is an important innovation of modernization of TCM, which has great clinical value and irreplaceability in medical enterprise of China. But reports of adverse events of TCM injections gradually increased in recent years and the security problems received much concern with the enlargement of its application range. The reasons include unreliable herb sources and unreasonable utilization, in which the former includes historical reasons and non-unified standard and the latter includes combined use of Chinese and Western medicine, misused dosage and formula not corresponding to syndromes. We should face the problems, and preventive measures should be worked out by pharmaceutical factory, doctors and government. The first one is strictly guarding the pharmaceutical preparation procedures with advanced pharmaceutical technology; the second one is advocating the idea of formula corresponding to syndromes to minimize the occurrence of adverse effects; and the last one is strengthening the postmarketing reevaluation and market supervising management.

Evidence-Based Chinese Medicine for Hypertension

“…However, with the increasing reports of liver toxicity and other adverse events associated with Chinese herbal medicines [82–84], the safety of CM needs to be monitored rigorously and reported appropriately in the future clinical trials [85–87]. According to our review, safety evaluation of CM is not the highlight.…”

Confirmation of a proarrhythmic risk underlying the clinical use of common Chinese herbal intravenous injections

“…The first Chinese herbal intravenous injection (CHI) was used in China in the 1940s, during World War Two, when the Chinese military focused on using any medicine available with minimal regard for drug safety (Xiong et al, 2010). Since 1954, the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) of China has officially approved 109 CHIs for clinical use (Li, 2010).…”

Chinese Herbal Medicine for the Treatment of Prehypertension

“…AE is a critical issue in CAM which has raised more and more concern world widely [55–57]. In China, there is a general view that it seems to be safe to use CHM for various diseases [58, 59]. In our review, most of the trials did not report the adverse effect of CHM except one [49].…”