Abstract: Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of S-adenosyl methionine treatment for alcoholic liver disease. Methods We searched the Cochrane Database of Controlled Trials Register (CCTR), PubMed, EMBASE, the Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM), CNKI, Chinese Scientific and Technological Journal Database (VIP database) and Wanfang Database. Quality assessment and data extraction were conducted by two reviewers independently, and disagreement, if any, was resolved by discussion. Meta-analyses were performed for homogeneous studies. Results Total of ten studies were involved, and 745 patients met the inclusion criteria. Only one study were centralized randomly by a number table, and performed blindly. Other studies did not report randomized methods. Ten sutdies did not enforce allocation concealment and none of the trials performed blinding. Subgroup analyses were conducted based on the indexes measured and interventions. ①In terms of reducing ALT, no significant differences were noted between the S-adenosyl methionine + conventional therapy group and the reduced glutathione + conventional therapy group when the treatment course was 20 days [WMD = -18.0, 95%CI (-38.36, -2.36)], the S-adenosyl methionine + essentiale N group and potassium magnesium asparaginate + essentiale N group when the treatment course was 4 weeks [WMD = -8.39, 95%CI (-19.81, 3.02)], also for the S-adenosyl methionine therapy group and the placebo therapy group when the treatment course was 2 years [WMD = -7.3, 95%CI (-15.49, 0.89)]. Other studies showed that the study group was more effective than the control group. ②In terms of reducing AST, no significant differences were noted between the S-adenosyl methionine + essentiale N group and potassium magnesium asparaginate + essentiale N group when the treatment course was 4 weeks [WMD = -8.39, 95%CI (-19.81, 3.02)], also for the S-adenosyl methionine therapy group and the placebo therapy group when the treatment course was 2 years [WMD = -7.4, 95%CI (-17.96, 3.16)]. Other studies showed that the study group was more effective than the control group. ③In terms of reducing GGT, no significant differences were noted between the S-adenosyl methionine + reduced glutathione group and potassium magnesium asparaginate + Vitamin C group when the treatment course was 4 weeks [WMD = -20.10, 95%CI (-40.77, 0.57)]. No significant differences were noted between the S-adenosyl methionine therapy group and the placebo therapy group when the treatment course was 2 years [WMD = -8.7, 95%CI (-36.42, 19.02)]. Other studies showed that the study group was more effective than the control group. ④In terms of reducing TG, the treatment group was more effective than the control group [WMD = -1.04, 95%CI (-1.23, -0.85)]. ⑤In terms of reducing the index of hepatic fibrosis (PCⅢ, HA), the treatment group was more effective than the control group [WMD = -127, 95%CI (-161.81, -92.19), WMD = -162, 95%CI (-226.10, -97.90), respectively]. ⑥In terms of raising survival rate, the treatment group was more effective than the control group in patients with Child-Pugh A and B classification when the treatment course was 2 years. Conclusions S-adenosyl methionine might be effective in normalizing transaminase levels, and improving hepatic fibrosis, blood fat. S-adenosyl methionine might be a promising drug in the treatment of alcoholic liver cirrhosis of patients with Child-Pugh A and B classification with no serious adverse effects. However, the overall effects cannot be pooled for analysis, more evidence is needed to support this finding.
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