Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Shen Song Yang Xin Capsule for treatment of cardiac arrhythmia.

Methods Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were searched from the following electronic databases: Wanfang, CNKI, CBM, Vip, PubMed, The Cochrane Library. Quality assessment and data extraction were conducted by two reviewers independently. Disagreement was resolved through discussion. All data were analysed by using Review Manager 5.0 software.

Results 13 studies involving 1896 participants involving. Meta-analysis results showed that, compared with control, (1) the efficacy, Shen Song Yang Xin Capsule is better than propafenone [RR=0.42, 95% CI (0.28 to 0.62)], mexiletine [RR=0.34, 95% CI (0.21 to 0.56)], no significant difference between Shen Song Yang Xin Capsule and amiodarone [RR=0.80, 95% CI (0.57 to 1.14)]. Total efficacy for treatment of cardiac arrhythmia is RR=0.54, 95% CI (0.42 to 0.68). (2) The safety, Shen Song Yang Xin Capsule is no worse than the control in inducing of cardiac arrhythmia [RR=0.06, 95% CI (0.02 to 0.15)], there is no significant difference between Shen Song Yang Xin Capsule and the control in inducing of gastrointestinal adverse reaction [RR=0.84, 95% CI (0.58 to 1.23)].

Conclusion Compared with the current anti-arrhythmic medicine, Shen Song Yang Xin Capsule is no worse than the current anti-arrhythmic medicine, lower in the rate of inducing cardiac arrhythmia, and there is no significant difference between Shen Song Yang Xin Capsule and the current anti-arrhythmic medicine in inducing of gastrointestinal adverse reaction. For the restrictions of the quality of the studies, the evaluation of anti-arrhythmic effects look forward to more high-quality RCT to further evaluation.