Effect of Statins on Helicobacter pylori Eradication Rate: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Statins have been used as adjuvants to standard treatment in order to increase the eradication rates<i></i>of<i> Helicobacter pylori</i> infection. This study aimed to summarize the results of the efficacy of adding statins to standard treatments used for the eradication<i></i>of<i> H. pylori</i> infection. We conducted a systematic search using a comprehensive combination of keywords in PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Scopus to retrieve relevant studies from 1990 to 2020. The estimate of pooled relative risk (RR), as the effect measure, was calculated using random effects meta-analyses in Stata 14. We finally included 5 studies (all of them were randomized controlled trials). The meta-analysis of all studies showed that the pooled RR (95% confidence interval) was 1.03 (0.64–1.68) in the random effects model, which was not statistically significant. In other words, based on our meta-analysis, the addition of statins as an adjuvant therapy to the standard treatment regimens does not increase the rate of <i>H. pylori</i> eradication. However, further evidence is needed to confirm this result as the number of available studies was small.