Journal of Ophthalmology

Research Article

Chinese Herbal Medicine Combined with Intravitreal Antivascular Growth Factor Agents in Treatment of Macular Edema Secondary to Retinal Vein Occlusion: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Table 3

GRADE for quality of evidence profile.


Quality assessment							No. of patients		Absolute effect (95% CI)	Quality
No. of studies	Study design	Risk of bias	Inconsistency	Indirectness	Imprecision	Other considerations	CHM combined with anti-VEGF agents	Anti-VEGF agents	Absolute effect (95% CI)	Quality

BCVA 1W
4	RCT	Serious^a	Not serious	Not serious	Serious^d	None	140	131	MD −0.01 (−0.06, 0.05)	⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW

BCVA 1M
6	RCT	Serious^a	Serious^c	Not Serious	Not serious	None	220	211	MD −0.02 (−0.06, 0.02)	⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW

BCVA 2M
2	RCT	Serious^a	Not serious	Not serious	Serious^d	None	78	76	MD 0.04 (−0.01, 0.08)	⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW

BCVA 3M
6	RCT	Serious^a,b	Serious^c	Not serious	Not serious	None	249	240	MD −0.09 (−0.13,−0.05)	⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW

BCVA 6M
5	RCT	Serious^a,b	Serious^c	Not serious	Not serious	None	219	210	MD −0.10 (−0.18,−0.03)	⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW

BCVA 12M
1	RCT	Serious^a	Not serious	Not serious	Serious^d	None	75	75	MD −0.10 (−0.18,−0.02)	⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW

CMT 1W
4	RCT	Serious^a	Not serious	Not serious	Serious^d	None	140	131	MD −8.14 (−22.23, 5.96)	⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW

CMT 1M
8	RCT	Serious^a	Serious^c	Not serious	Serious^d	None	271	262	MD −38.64 (−70.18, −7.10)	⊕⃝⃝⃝VERY LOW

CMT 2M
3	RCT	Serious^a	Not serious	Not serious	Serious^d	None	99	97	MD −19.57 (−31.11, −8.02)	⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW

CMT 3M
8	RCT	Serious^a	Serious^c	Not serious	Serious^d	None	325	316	MD −61.81 (−99.84, −23.77)	⊕⃝⃝⃝VERY LOW

CMT 6M
9	RCT	Serious^a	Serious^c	Not serious	Serious^d	None	346	337	MD −60.22 (−87.97, −32.47)	⊕⃝⃝⃝VERY LOW

CMT 12M
1	RCT	Serious^a	Not serious	Not serious	Serious^d	None	75	75	MD −115.10 (−143.75, −86.45)	⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW

Number of anti-VEGF injections
6	RCT	Serious^a	Serious^c	Not serious	Not Serious	None	220	211	MD −1.03 (−1.44, −0.61)	⊕⊕⃝⃝LOW

Total effective rate
5	RCT	Serious^a	Not serious	Not serious	Not serious	None	231	231	RR 1.26 (1.16, 1.38)	⊕⊕⊕⃝MODERATE

^amissing detail about blindness, allocation concealment, and other biases, ^bno clear randomization procedure is described, ^chigh heterogeneity leads to serious inconsistency, and ^dthe wide confidence interval indicates imprecision and the sample size is small.