Associations of Traditional Chinese Medicine Therapy with Risks of Lower-Limb Amputation, Cardiovascular Mortality and All-Cause Mortality in Patients with Peripheral Arterial Occlusive Disease-A Retrospective Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVE

This is a retrospective cohort study assessing the association between the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the risk of lower-limb amputation, cardiovascular (CV) mortality, and all-cause mortality among people with peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD).

METHODS

The study utilized data from the National Health Insurance Research Database of the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Taiwan. A 1:1 propensity score matching ratio based on gender, age (5-year interval), comorbidities, medications, and year of index date.The risk of outcomes among PAOD patients with and without TCM use was estimated by a Cox proportional hazards model.

RESULTS

The study findings showed that TCM treatment was associated with a significant decreased risk of lower-limb loss (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 0.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.50-0.61), CV death (aHR = 0.33, 95% CI = 0.31-0.34), and all-cause mortality (aHR = 0.34, 95% CI = 0.34-0.35) among people with PAOD, especially for CV death and all-cause death.

CONCLUSION

We found that patients with PAOD treated with TCM have a decreased risk of endpoints, especially for CV death and all-cause death.