Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42490855›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in pediatrics2026

Nebulised Chinese herbal medicine for paediatric pneumonia: a meta-analysis.

Jing Shen, Yousong Li, Mengling Wei, Tiantian Qin

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in pediatrics, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Jing Shen *Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China.
Yousong Li *Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China.
Mengling WeiDepartment of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China.
Tiantian QinDepartment of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of nebulised Chinese herbal medicine as an adjunctive therapy for paediatric pneumonia. Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted in the PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, VIP and Chinese Biomedical Literature electronic databases between inception and 1 November 2025. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) investigating nebulised Chinese herbal medicine as an adjunctive treatment for paediatric pneumonia were included. Two reviewers independently performed literature selection and data extraction and assessed the methodological quality using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool. Meta-analysis was performed using Stata 17.0 software, and publication bias was assessed using RevMan 5.4. Results: Seventeen RCTs involving 1,764 patients were included. The meta-analysis showed that, compared with conventional Western therapy alone, the combination with nebulised Chinese herbal medicine significantly improved the total clinical effective rate [odds ratio = 3.24, 95% CI: (2.24, 4.68), Conclusion: Current evidence suggests that nebulised Chinese herbal medicine combined with conventional Western therapy can significantly improve clinical efficacy, accelerate symptom resolution and shorten the disease course in children with pneumonia. However, due to methodological limitations in the included studies, these findings warrant further validation in larger, rigorously designed trials.

Indexed as

Chinese herbaldrugsmeta-analysisnebulisers and vaporiserspneumoniarandomised controlled trial

Identifiers

PMID42490855
PMCPMC13375793

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.