OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect and safety of vitamin A supplementation in children with pneumonia through a systematic review.

METHODSCochrane Library, EMbase, PubMed, China Biology Medicine disc, CNKI, and Wanfang Data were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on vitamin A as an adjuvant therapy for pneumonia in children. Two reviewers independently screened the studies and evaluated their quality according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. RevMan5.3 was used for the Meta analysis.

RESULTSA total of 15 RCTs with 3 021 patients were included. The Meta analysis showed that vitamin A supplementation did not reduce the mortality of children with pneumonia (P>0.05), but it increased the overall clinical response rate (P<0.05) and shortened the duration of pyrexia and cough, clearance time of signs and abnormal chest X-ray results, and length of hospital stay (P<0.05). As an adjuvant therapy, vitamin A did not increase the incidence rates of adverse reactions such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, allergy, and bregma bulging.

CONCLUSIONSCurrent evidence shows that in the treatment of pneumonia in children, vitamin A supplementation helps to relieve clinical symptoms and signs and shorten the length of hospital stay.The adjuvant therapy does not increase the incidence rates of adverse reactions.