OBJECTIVETo study the mutual influences between intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) and intestinal dysfunction, and to observe the efficacy of Tongfu Granule (TFG) in treating IAH of patients with multiorgan dysfunction syndrome (MODS).

METHODSAdopting randomized, double-blinded, controlled method, 60 MODS patients hospitalized in authors' ICU wards from August 2007 to January 2008 were equally assigned to two groups: A and B, that is, the TFG group and the placebo group, all were treated by conventional treatment but different in the administration of TFG and placebo, respectively 1 bag, three times per day, for 7 days via oral intake or gastric infusion. On the 1st, 3rd and 7th day or before death, patients were monitored in terms of symptoms (abdominal distention, defecation, borborygmus, abdominal circumference, intra-abdominal pressure, and occult blood in stool), gastrointestinal function score, APACHE II score, and 28-day outcome. The blind outcome was shown up by specified tester by the end of the observation of 60 cases, A is the TFG group, B is the placebo group.

RESULTSAs compared with the placebo group, intestinal peristalsis and borborygmus were increased, the intra-abdominal pressure and circumference were decreased in the TFG group significantly, which could reduce the possibility of gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Moreover, the gastrointestinal function score and APACHE II score were improved and the 28-day mortality was reduced to a certain degree in the TFG group.

CONCLUSIONTFG could promote the recovering of gastrointestinal function and relieve the heightened intra-abdominal pressure in patients with MODS so as to improve patients' prognosis to some extents.