OBJECTIVE: To explore the treatment efficacy of integrated Chinese medicine (Chaihu Shugan San, , CSS) and western therapy in the treatment of adhesive intestinal obstruction (AIO), to provide new ideas for the management of the disease. METHODS: In our single-blind randomized controlled study, 120 patients with AIO who were hospitalized in The Affiliated Hospital of China West Normal University Nan Chong Gaoping District People's Hospital from January 2021 to June 2022 and met the inclusion criteria were categorized into the treatment group and the control group. Patients from the control group were administered basic Western Medicine therapy, whereas patients from the treatment group were administered basic Western Medicine therapy plus CSS by gastric tube injection. Subsequently, the time to first anal exhaustion and defecation, time to relief of abdominal distension and pain, days of hospitalization, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) symptom scores, interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT) levels in the 2 groups were recorded and compared. RESULTS: The comparison of clinical efficacy of the treatment group were better than the control group. The TCM symptom score was considerably lower in the treatment group
the inflammation indicators CRP, IL-6, and PCT also decreased statistically when comparing the control group. Furthermore, there were significantly reduced in the time to first exhaustion, time to first defecation, time to relief of abdominal pain and distension, and days of hospitalization in the treatment group versus the control group. CONCLUSION: CSS could suppress the inflammatory reaction, reduce days of hospitalization, relieve clinical symptoms in AIO patients with reliable efficacy and high safety and is worthy of clinical application.